LED capsule bulbs

[daveontheway]

I am going to replace all the incandescent bulbs with G4 LED capsule bulbs which are rated at 12V and 1.8 W. I have heard that these may blow when the house battery is charged/charging and is delivering more than 12V. As a result of this I may have to incorporate a resistor for each bulb. Is this correct and if so, what voltage should I use when calculating the value of the resistor?

[jstevens]

Why are you considering these bulbs, when there are many suppliers of LED G4 bulbs that do not required such protection?

John

[belizesailor]

A resistor just drops the voltage so not really the ideal solution (for example, size to drop your max expected voltage to 12V).

You can also buy external DC-DC voltage regulators and install them in circuit to deliver 12V consistently across variable input voltage.

Best I think to buy bulbs with a built in voltage regulator. Easy to see fom the specs because they will have a voltage range rather than a fixed voltage. Generally better quality components too.

See MarineBeam.com (high quality, boat specific inventory) and superbrighteds.com (huge inventory of everything LED).

[daveontheway]

Thank you for your advice. The reason for choosing them was cost (less than £1 each) as opposed to multi LEDs in a disc for about £8 but you are right in that you get what you pay for and at my age I could have figured that out.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by daveontheway

Thank you for your advice. The reason for choosing them was cost (less than £1 each) as opposed to multi LEDs in a disc for about £8 but you are right in that you get what you pay for and at my age I could have figured that out.

Yes, "you get what you pay for", is very true with LEDs. The cheap ones just dont tend to last.

The more expensive, better quality, internally regulated bulbs last much longer. I run 12V systems at home and on the boat. Ive never had a cheap bulb last very long, but have had better quality ones for years.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

... and superbrighteds.com (huge inventory of everything LED).

That should be "superbrightleds.com".

[daveontheway]

Thanks. I'll see if that company will dispatch to uk at a reasonable cost.

[Jim Cate]

Dave, you might look at Bedazzled, a UK based LED company that sells a wide selection of very high quality LED replacements and fixtures. Mine are 4 years old now and no failures of any sort.

Jim

[daveontheway]

Thanks Jim. I'll have a look at them.