Which Cabin lights?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Marine Beam has replacement LED for almost any marine fixture and also some nice fixtures. Bulbs are high efficiency PWM controlled.

HOME. https://store.marinebeam.com
FLUORESCENT https://store.marinebeam.com/fluorescent-style/

Have tried their LED bulbs and fixtures but I have one of their flashlights and it's excellent.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Really? That worries me a bit as I have about a dozen LED strip lights from SuperbrightLEDS attached under shelves and such that have been great indirect lighting. On full brightness they do get a little warm but never hot and so far (5-6 years) no explosions.

Were these bulbs or fixtures from SBLEDS?

Ive bought lots of stuff from SB LEDs, for both afloat and ashore (off grid), with nothing but good experiences.

They have a huge inventory so you've got to understand what you are buying and review the specs. For example, if you put a fixed voltage 12V bulb into an unregulated voltage source on a boat then its likely to fail.

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Another issue about the perceived harshness of light from LEDs, unlike most other light sources that make a very broad spectrum light, LEDs (all or most LEDs?) make light in a very narrow color band. So even warm white LEDs can appear harsh.

I tried several colors in my boat and none looked right until I installed two strips side by side, one warm white and one white light. That then to me looked perfect.

Very interesting. I did notice the other day that my overhead "3200K" LED lights are a mix of little LED's each emitting light bluer than and redder than 3200K. The mix creates the 3200K look.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Marine Beam has replacement LED for almost any marine fixture and also some nice fixtures. Bulbs are high efficiency PWM controlled.

HOME. https://store.marinebeam.com
FLUORESCENT https://store.marinebeam.com/fluorescent-style/

Marine Beam is another excellent source and they only stock bulbs/fixtures specific to boats. "Marine" is in the name so its more expensive, but good quality stuff and you dont have to dig into the details as much.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Very interesting. I did notice the other day that my overhead "3200K" LED lights are a mix of little LED's each emitting light bluer than and redder than 3200K. The mix creates the 3200K look.

That goes along with my reading and personal experience. I tried single color LEDs from about 3000K to 6500K and all looked harsh until I mixed a warm and a cool white. Unfortunately I forget the exact color spec on the ones I used but I think I used a +/- 3000 and a +/- 5000

[fursoc]

Wow, great response! Nothing better than adding a post before bed and waking up to all this good info. Thank you all! I’ll digest this through the day.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

. . . I wish more affordable LED light fixtures had diffusing lenses. I know mine don't. . .. - Please start designing affordable 3000-3200k 12v LED's with some kind of internal diffusion similar to 216.

Here you go:


https://bedazzledledlighting.co.uk/p...5-led-frosted/

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Here you go:


https://bedazzledledlighting.co.uk/p...5-led-frosted/

Thanks those are actually a perfect replacement for my halogens.

I haven't seen affordable 3200K frosted ceiling dome type lights yet though.

[Excalibur5]

We have alpenglow LED’s throughout our cat and love them. Extremely bright, low power draw, and no RF noise.



This is one on low this evening.

They are pricy though.

[Lazerbrains]

My new boat came with Alpenglow lights and I have to admit they are really wonderful. Warm color temperature, really nice light spread, dimmable and beautiful looking.

[jmh2002]

I've had Alpenglow lights in the past too. See my positive thoughts about them in another thread here:

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3130326

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by fursoc

Does anybody have any opinions on types of light fixtures on boats? Eg. round down lights, wall lights, strip lights, etc?

I don't have experience with strip lights.

My boat, built in 2001, had something like 50 round recessed halogen downlights. 20 watts each with G4 halogen bulbs. Cantalupi fixtures.

I experimented with ALL KINDS of replacement LED G4 bulbs with varying degrees of success. They were expensive back when I bought my boat (2009).

The Cantalupi fixtures were awful -- the thin brass chassis would shatter if you depressed the mounting springs too much. Awful.

Finally I found some really good bulbs -- not G4, but MR16. Really beautiful light -- finally -- and really bright enough-- finally.

Can't use those in the Cantalupi fixtures, but MR16 fixtures are common mass produced items which are dirt cheap. I bought the first few for £8 to £10 each and finally bought a case load from EBay for something like £1.50 each.

Really big advantage of MR16 is that they have built in reflectors, appropriate to the light source. Existing fixtures have reflectors designed for halogen, and anyway are obsucred by the circuit board of those disk-type G4 LED bulbs. Makes a huge difference in the quality of the light.

The bulbs came from Bedazzled.

More information here: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post2215010

It's VERY important that LED bulbs you use are (a) buck-regulated rather than with resistors; and (b) are individually fused. I had a batch of G4 bulbs from Superbrightleds which EXPLODED, one after the other. No fuse, and resistor regulated. Pop! Really dangerous.

For the OP: Don't know how your headliner is arranged, but in most boats it wouldn't be too hard to make holes with a hole saw for mounting these. You form a new circuit -- with a breaker! -- and just provide house 12v or 24v to each unit. Make sure you have enough clearance behind, before you start hacking the holes.