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LED Lighting


AlanH

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Our boat has those square flourescent lights which are OK but the one in the bathroom has developed a fault. I would like to replace it with an LED light but I am having trouble finding one that is designed to surface mount and has a switch on it.

Any ideas?

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Our boat has those square flourescent lights which are OK but the one in the bathroom has developed a fault. I would like to replace it with an LED light but I am having trouble finding one that is designed to surface mount and has a switch on it.

Any ideas?

 

Have a look at this

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Our boat has those square flourescent lights which are OK but the one in the bathroom has developed a fault. I would like to replace it with an LED light but I am having trouble finding one that is designed to surface mount and has a switch on it.

Any ideas?

I think it is fairly easy to just buy normal dome lights and then modify to fit LEDs either by doing a bit of soldering or using hidden chocolate blocs.

 

For about 99p and 2.00 p&p now you can get 48 smd/led little wired ssquare cards meant to replace festoon or halogens (the adaptors come with em) from Ebay China and they are really bright but low power.

 

Hitherto I have soldered in the bayonet type LED's because the locating pins are offset leaving the original lamp socket intact.

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One thing I would say is that any replacement LED's are going to be very directional compared to a 2D fluro fitting....I have thought of replacing our 2D fittings with LED's but to be honest dont think the spread of light would come close. I know they would use less power but its nice to see what you are doing!

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

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One thing I would say is that any replacement LED's are going to be very directional compared to a 2D fluro fitting....I have thought of replacing our 2D fittings with LED's but to be honest dont think the spread of light would come close. I know they would use less power but its nice to see what you are doing!

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

That's an old way of thinking about LEDs. Much has come on and changed in recent times. Have a look at this website and flourescent tube replacements in particular.

 

http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/12v%20&%2024v%20LED%20TUBES.htm

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  • 3 weeks later...

We put in 220V 8Watt "green" bayonet bulbs. One in lounge. One in galley. One in bedroom.

They work WELL. ...and the wiring doesnt have to be able to support huge current. Only worth it if you have your inverter on for other things for most of the time which we do. (at night). We have a few 12V backup lights. (and we keep our batteries seperate, so if one set go down, the other system still has power)...but beware...we do everything wrong.

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We put in 220V 8Watt "green" bayonet bulbs. One in lounge. One in galley. One in bedroom.

They work WELL. ...and the wiring doesnt have to be able to support huge current. Only worth it if you have your inverter on for other things for most of the time which we do. (at night). We have a few 12V backup lights. (and we keep our batteries seperate, so if one set go down, the other system still has power)...but beware...we do everything wrong.

 

Do you happen to have a diagram for this? :lol:

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We have some 230 volt energy savers as well..in a nice standard lamp...and a nice Tiffany table lamp. They are 230 volt at 11 watts....which we use on the invertor.

We often leave the standard lamp on when we go to the pub...as the main draw is the invetor loss...which is only a couple of A/hrs. The actual bulbs are so low in power draw ...its almost difficult to calculate...or to see on the guage.

 

bob

Edited by Bobbybass
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Be careful buying cheap LED bulbs as they are often controlled by inbuilt resistors and 12v bulbs can seriously overheat at 15v which a typical equalising charging voltage for properly cycled deep discharge batteries.

 

Try http://www.boatlamps.co.uk they sell a vast range of 10-30v constant-current LED products.

 

We made this mistake, we bought 30 x MR16 led's with 20 led's in each, about 6 years ago, within 6 months most of the individual bulbs in each light bulb had blown. I then found out that led's don't like voltages above 13.5 volts. We replaced the 30 led's with some more MR16 led's from china, they were brighter with 30 led's and were slightly tinted to mimic halogen bulbs, cost less than a fiver each about 3 years ago, however we fitted 12 volt voltage regulators to all the light fittings before fitting them, none have blown as yet so the reg''s doing it's job.

 

So cheap bulbs are fine if you regulate them.

 

 

 

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That's an old way of thinking about LEDs. Much has come on and changed in recent times. Have a look at this website and flourescent tube replacements in particular.

 

http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/12v%20&%2024v%20LED%20TUBES.htm

I can also recommend Bedazzled. When I found that some of the Leds I had bought from him over a year ago could give interference to my wireless, he offered to swap them for the latest versikn FOC. As it was when I tested for the exact cause of the interference I could not repeat it so did not take up his offer

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We have some 230 volt energy savers as well..in a nice standard lamp...and a nice Tiffany table lamp. They are 230 volt at 11 watts....which we use on the invertor.

We often leave the standard lamp on when we go to the pub...as the main draw is the invetor loss...which is only a couple of A/hrs. The actual bulbs are so low in power draw ...its almost difficult to calculate...or to see on the guage.

 

bob

We found that at home the new energy savers were not a match for their equilalent bulbs. But now we have found we can buy ones that still fit in a lamp and are 150 and 220 watt bulb equilalents - ideal for the older eyes.

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Our boat has those square flourescent lights which are OK but the one in the bathroom has developed a fault. I would like to replace it with an LED light but I am having trouble finding one that is designed to surface mount and has a switch on it.

Any ideas?

 

Hi

 

Our boat had the round version of those u have with the D type flourescent bulb things fitted, each one used to draw 1 amp each with a reasonable light output. They started to go wrong and at 54 squid each we looked for an alternative and found at Midland swindlers some great replacements. they are round but will cover the same space as your square ones they are surface mounted and individualy switched they have I think twenty odd leds in each and give out nearly as much light as the others did BUT only draw 0.2 of an amp and at less than twelve quid each I replaced all my deckhead lights and am well pleased they have worked at all voltages without fault for about a year. I have a spare one I can dig out if you need the stock number, they are brass so Swindlers will probably know which ones thay are. :)

Edited by mrsmelly
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So cheap bulbs are fine if you regulate them.

(snipped)

 

Well not entirely! The regulator on its own will still let through short spikes of very high voltage that a boat system has a habit of producing occasionally. Some LED lamp suppliers provide optional and basic spike protection devices to go with their products. eg I think Bedazzled do.

 

These spikes may at any unpredictable moment cause damage to unprotected electronic devices.

 

Gibbo of this parish wrote extensively on this subject a year or so ago and gave details of a more comprehensive spike suppression circuit.

 

I wrote the thread details down in my (paper) notebook so I can always find it. Trouble is I've now got to go looking for my notebook.

 

Richard

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We made this mistake, we bought 30 x MR16 led's with 20 led's in each, about 6 years ago, within 6 months most of the individual bulbs in each light bulb had blown. I then found out that led's don't like voltages above 13.5 volts. We replaced the 30 led's with some more MR16 led's from china, they were brighter with 30 led's and were slightly tinted to mimic halogen bulbs, cost less than a fiver each about 3 years ago, however we fitted 12 volt voltage regulators to all the light fittings before fitting them, none have blown as yet so the reg''s doing it's job.

 

So cheap bulbs are fine if you regulate them.

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I'm not sure what you mean by a voltage regulator, do you mean a suppressor designed for spikes or a seporate electronic circuit to regulate voltage to 12v the latter being much more expensive?

I ask this because some so called voltage regulators turn out to be simple varistors designed to break down above 12v and protect a device from short duration voltage spikes, generated by fridge thermostats etc.

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Yes, The majority of our bulbs now in the boat are from china under a fiver each 2 years ago, 30 led's per bulb and yellowed to mimic halogen bulbs. They've been in 2 years now and none have blown, used on av 3 to 4 days a week.

 

We bought some small regulators to protect them.

 

http://www.reuk.co.uk/buy-12-VOLT-REGULATOR.htm

 

I wired these in to cover 4 to 6 bulbs each, it will protect up to ten though depending on bulb wattage.

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