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Old 04-02-2012, 10:59   #16
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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Thanks. The outside diameter of silver-colored ring is 2-5/8". The conical reflector has a diameter of about 1-1/2". Here are some pictures with and without the lens attached. The bulb is in a horizontal position. The fixtures in heads and staterooms are similar in design, but a bit smaller.
Pete
The bulbs I mentioned will fit that fixture.

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Old 04-02-2012, 13:06   #17
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

Marine LED Bulbs for your boat

LED Replacement Bulbs - IMTRA Marine Products

Both of these guys sell good PWM bulb replacements that won't interfere with your radios.
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Old 04-02-2012, 14:54   #18
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

I have the same lights and used these:
Xenon White LED Car G4 5-SMD

The down side is the light is more white then soft white. They work well in reading lamps and accent lights. Very good price.
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Old 04-02-2012, 16:03   #19
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

Please read my posts noted above. As far as I can tell, the Solidapolo lights noted and ALL of the cheap stuff have no or inedequate current regulation. They will be too hot when your charging sytem is on (with prematurely short life) and will dim out if your batteries are down. They will probably pull too much current relative to the actual LED specifications. For sail systems with wide voltage variations, you really need PWM curnent regulation. This is integral on the lights I noted. All choke resister systems will suck power that is wasted to heat and may even pull nearly as much current as an IC bulb. If you are mostly tied to the dock and shore power every night then maybe you don't care. If you are offshore then you care a lot.

I guess, "BEST FOR THE BUCK" needs a qualifier. What is your goal? What are your expectations?

Soft white is around 3500 Kelvin. That is the range you should look for for cabin lights. Proper current regulation will give life of 50,000 to 100,000 hours. 4000 Kelvin and above operates with a hotter junction, is hard white to blue-white and will have a shorter life.
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Old 04-02-2012, 18:34   #20
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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Please read my posts noted above. As far as I can tell, the Solidapolo lights noted and ALL of the cheap stuff have no or inedequate current regulation.
You need to define cheap. The Imtra lights you like are only $12. They are not made by Imtra, and the exact same bulbs can be found for $7-8. The lights I pointed to at Home Depot are PWM current regulated and cost $9. Sensibulbs cost $45, but I find many of the less expensive ones to be better in many ways.

Certainly, there are probably $1 ones that are a disaster, but the majority of the bulbs being made now have good current regulation, warm light color, using 5050 surface mount diodes and have good output. And cost less than $20 - most only half that. Prices have come down dramatically and quality has gone up.

So if your $12 bulbs aren't cheap, then where do you draw the line? If the argument is only about good current regulation, then that problem is being taken care of daily in the market - hardly any "bad" designs exist anymore, and those are the $1 specials.

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Old 04-02-2012, 18:40   #21
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

Relavent to this discussion, I just turned on my "cheap" lights with the battery at 12.4V and started the battery charger. As the battery rose to 14.8V, there was absolutely no change in brightness, heat output, color change or current draw. None at all. As I stated above, I know these to be current regulated and they cost me $8 each from Home Depot.

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Old 04-02-2012, 19:27   #22
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

Mark,

May I impose upon you to show a pic of the $8 Home Depot LED lite. I have checked at my local Home Depot and can not find LED lights anywhere near that price.

Thanks,

Paul

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Old 04-02-2012, 21:29   #23
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

Hello,

To answer your question regarding if anyone had actually bought the cheap ones off e-bay; yes I have. To be honest I have had zero problems with them and the color is as described. The ones I bought do seem to be regulated as they do not dim with voltage. In my application I had to break my existing bulb and solder the LED's into the bayonet base as my boat was built in France and uses funky bulbs. They are brighter and draw approximately on tenth of the current.

One thing to watch is the watts, make sure they are equivalent to the bulbs you are replacing.

Hope that helps,

Peter
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Old 05-02-2012, 01:40   #24
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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Here are two more good ones. Purchased from both with good luck.

G4 LED Replacement Bulb Globes Lamps Halogen Light Bulbs Lighting

www.LEDwholesalers.com
Thanks. The first link indicates input voltage range of 10-14 and the second one lists 12. I have read that for ranges 10-15 or less, it usually means the non-regulated, resistive type. Have you determined otherwise?
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Old 05-02-2012, 01:51   #25
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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The bulbs I mentioned will fit that fixture.

Mark
Thanks. I just noticed that the 1.2" length quoted for that bulb includes the pin. Wonder what the length is exclusive of pins? Their drawing looks like it was done by a second grader
Pete
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Old 05-02-2012, 02:05   #26
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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Marine LED Bulbs for your boat

LED Replacement Bulbs - IMTRA Marine Products

Both of these guys sell good PWM bulb replacements that won't interfere with your radios.
Thanks. The closest IMTRA I could find on your link was the model ILSPG4-10W as shown here:
IMTRA - LED Replacement Bulbs

It consumes 2.2 watts or almost 50% of the 4.8 watts my halogens consumes and costs a whopping $19.95.

The marinebeam model SP-G4-06 bulb shown here:
G4 6-LED Side Pin Replacement

for $15 or 10 for $135 look a much better deal. It draws 1.5 watts and is considerably smaller.
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Old 05-02-2012, 02:17   #27
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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You need to define cheap. The Imtra lights you like are only $12. They are not made by Imtra, and the exact same bulbs can be found for $7-8. The lights I pointed to at Home Depot are PWM current regulated and cost $9.
Mark
Thanks. Do you have a link to the IMTRA equivalent bulbs costing $7-8? Also, how did you verify the Home Depot lights are PWM? I believe they are the Array model ADC10G4WW selling at Lowes for $8.98
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Old 05-02-2012, 02:28   #28
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The Imtra ones I have give a sickly greenish light; however, have held up well over more than two years and seem to be well made. The ones I have are not dimmer than the Sensibulbs I have on board - both very dim compared to the 20 watt halogens they replaced.
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Old 05-02-2012, 03:30   #29
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

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I guess, "BEST FOR THE BUCK" needs a qualifier. What is your goal? What are your expectations?
Thanks. My goal, based on what I've learned so far, is to find the most cost effective g4 style LED bulb with either linear or PWM regulation. Also, the bulb should have a color temperature in the range of 3000-3500 K, fit into my fixture, draw no more than 1-1.5 watts, and have a light equivalence of a 5 watt halogen. The primary task now is to determine the type of regulation used by some of the recommended bulbs I've seen referenced in various threads. Here are some examples:
<$4.00
Lighting Matrix Co., Ltd--products

$7.85
www.LEDwholesalers.com - 6 Surface Mount White LEDs G4 Light Module 12V AC/DC

$8.98
Array Lighting - Premium LED lamp bulbs utilizing Selective Heat Sink Technology

$11.95
G4-xWHP6-DAC LED Lamp Specifications

Interestingly, the first one listed does use PWM regulation with the following chip:
http://www.tmtech.com.tw/DB/upload/L...9624181915.pdf
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Old 05-02-2012, 05:42   #30
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Re: Best LED bulbs for the buck

I highly suggest BoYa from China. I have bought about 400 G4s for myself and various friends:

Bo Ya Lighting(HK)Co., Ltd -dimmable led bulb,SMD led lamp,G4 led light 1

The contact person is Helen at : sales3@lightinggreen.cn

They offer three colors in the G4, 3000-4000K which is a warm white, 4000-5000K which is a bright white and the 6-7000K which I consider a blue white. The last order I placed had shipping to the U.S. of about 30$ so a one or two bulb purchase is not feasable. My friends and I are using the products on RVs and sailboats. If I had fully lite the RV with with the replaced halogens, the amperage would be close to 80 amps. That is reduced to less than 10 now. I found the G4-LC to be the best replacement of the G4 bulb. I really like the 24SMD 5050 Dome light LED to replace some of my floresents. I liked both the warm and the bright white, depending on how soft I wanted the light.
Helen was great to deal with and the shipments were received within 10 days of the order. If you make the contact please tell her that Alan, Dynamo181 said hello.
Hope this helps.
A
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