Led Lighting Change

[wooster]

Hi all,

I have fairly ancient lights in my boat. They comprise some approx. 12inch long ones on the saloon ceiling which are in a with diffused tube, a round frosted glass one in each toilet ceiling, and some small spot lights attached to the headboards ( One of these last has an LED bulb stuck in it. I wouldn't place any reliability as to the appropriateness of this as what maintenance that has been done on this boat has been of truly dire quality and worryingly slipshod )  

 I have shore power so 240v and also 12v electrical stuff going on.

I want to change the bulbs to LED but I'm not sure if I there will be a transformer for the current lights?  I don't really know where such a transformer would be if fitted or what it would look like. Since I have shore power and can run my current lights while hooked up and not hooked up I'm assuming my set up has AC coming from a transformer already for the lights to be run on battery power and these batteries are charged via that shore powered charger?

Does this mean I can change to LED bulbs without doing anything else?

Thanks

[grendel]

Check the voltage written on the current  bulbs, you will need the same voltage bulbs (probably 12v) with the same fitting type, my boat uses twin contacts, one plus one minus, some will have a  single contact, with the case as the negative, if the bulb doesn't work first time you may need to reverse the connections.

[BuffaloBill]

Your lighting will be 12v not 230v. Go and see Boulters and they will tell you what you need.

I bought a few LED's off the internet and after a couple of months, one flickered so I took the glass off the front and found it had serious burn marks on the printed circuit and, in my mind, was a fire waiting to happen!

Go to Boulters and you know that you'll get the right stuff.

 

[Mouldy]

As long as your lamps are 12v there are many options to convert to LED’s.  Very often, you can simply swap the bulbs, if yours are fluorescent, you will need to take the starter choke out of the circuit.  There are plenty of videos on YouTube to show you how to do it.  Otherwise, there are several different types of fitting that you can use.  Personally, I don’t like the cold, bright white that many LEDs give off, so we found some warm white options to use on Norfolk Lady when I changed ours over.  I have some photos of ours somewhere that I’ll post if I can find them.

[wooster]

Thank you gentlefolk.

In my rambling vague post, I was meaning that my batteries were charged with mains power from shore then the batteries ran the lights which were 12V. Where I was getting confused was in wondering if there was some other transformer to run the lights because I read or heard somewhere there was. I believe they might have been referring to the starter choke for fluorescents. It seems this is likely to be straightforward as none of mine are. ( Shouldn't have said it  )

Boulters is a bit away from me. I will ask at Brian Wards up the road, who I imagine should be on the ball.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Found nice replacements for my old strip lights at an online caravan store.

[Smoggy]

For good festoon bulbs look at sheridan marine and search for "butterfly bulb", I converted most of my interior lights to them as they are a good brightness and nice spectrum, a lot of leds are very harsh and although bright you can't see that well under them.

I used them in my existing florescent fittings by dumping the chokes and soldering direct and glueing to the backing, it was going to cost a couple of hundred quid to buy same footprint led fittings. 

The butterfly bulbs have voltage control on board so alternators, chargers, and pulsing water pumps don't kill them with voltage spikes like cheap leds. 

[Mouldy]

Managed to find the photos of what we did to ours.  I sourced some oak, Paul at Swancraft (where we moor) machined it to the correct sizes to fill the voids left by the original units and drilled the holes so I could  sand and varnish them before  fitting lamps.

We have three in the saloon and with all on, it can be a little bright, so all are individually switched, as well as being controlled by the main switch.  The one in the forward cabin is just switched by the main light switch.

The lamps themselves give a good spread of warm white light, which we prefer.

[wooster]

These are some pretty looking lights @Mouldy and a good looking ceiling too. I assume you just extended the existing fitting wires? 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, wooster said:

These are some pretty looking lights @Mouldy and a good looking ceiling too. I assume you just extended the existing fitting wires? 

Thank you!  The wires were long enough.  The wood was cut to fit where the old lights were originally, but by doing it this way, we were able to get warm white lamps.  The lamps themselves came in packs of two, with either chrome or white surrounds and the push button switches were from Amazon.

 

[annv]

Hi Beware of cheap EBay LED lights as they are prone to overheat and could cause a fire.  Brain Wards or Bedazzled for safe, quality LED's. John

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, annv said:

Hi Beware of cheap EBay LED lights as they are prone to overheat and could cause a fire.  Brain Wards or Bedazzled for safe, quality LED's. John

Yep.  Mine were from Brian Wards.

[wooster]

Speaking in my role as complete know-nothing here, is the choke always visible in the lamp? Also does a failure to remove it cause a potentially dangerous situation or does it simply mean that the LED bulb wouldn't work properly?

So, to summarise the whole situation, with incandescent lights I can just change the bulbs for LED without any issue. With fluorescent I just remove the choke by snipping it off and that's all I need to do. Is this right?

[Mouldy]

58 minutes ago, wooster said:

Speaking in my role as complete know-nothing here, is the choke always visible in the lamp? Also does a failure to remove it cause a potentially dangerous situation or does it simply mean that the LED bulb wouldn't work properly?

So, to summarise the whole situation, with incandescent lights I can just change the bulbs for LED without any issue. With fluorescent I just remove the choke by snipping it off and that's all I need to do. Is this right?

Fairly much.  It is a little more complicated, but I managed to do it with one of the lights on our boat, in the helm area. LED’s don’t need a starter (ballast) to illuminate, so they’re no longer required.  You will need to follow a circuit to make them work and I’m sure I either watched a YouTube video or found online instructions to achieve what I needed to do.

[wooster]

I'm just going to change the bulbs then and should be fine. Thank you all 

[grendel]

just remember LED's only work one way round, so if at first it doesnt work, reversing the wires should sort it out.

[annv]

Hi Wooster Why not just go to Wards and let them advise and provide what's best for you. John

[grendel]

Take one of the bulbs you wish to replace.

[Wonderwall]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

Take one of the bulbs you wish to replace.

Bulbs grow 

lamps glow 🤪

[wooster]

Yes I absolutely will go to Wards (with the bulbs). They are very helpful. I was just finding out how the land would likely lay before I do 

[CambridgeCabby]

18 hours ago, wooster said:

Yes I absolutely will go to Wards (with the bulbs). They are very helpful. I was just finding out how the land would likely lay before I do 

Don’t forget the very generous NBN 10% they offer 

[Gavin]

LED lighting is more susceptible to excess voltage and possibly voltage spikes. They generally need a 12v volt (or less if you want to under-run them and extend life) regulated/stabilised/constant voltage supply for maximum life.

I believe that if you simply replace the bulbs you may find that they have a shorter than expected life.  I don't believe it is a safety issue but am not an expert.     Suggest that you search for:   12v to 12v led regulator stabiliser if you don't want to take the risk.

If there is a central fuse for the lighting then fitting a regulator at that point will be easier an cheaper than doing so at each light.  You just have to know the total current draw of all your lights and buy a quality regulator that claims to support 20% more than this.

PS I wonder is caravan lighting is cheaper than boat lighting and/or offer more choice?

[wooster]

1 hour ago, CambridgeCabby said:

Don’t forget the very generous NBN 10% they offer 

Man! I've bought loads of stuff from them and never asked. Doh!  Thank you for the heads up 

[mjt]

On 17/08/2024 at 06:17, grendel said:

just remember LED's only work one way round, so if at first it doesnt work, reversing the wires should sort it out

Most LED lamps incorporate a full-wave bridge rectifier so are not polarity-sensitive.