Author Topic: led bulbs for cabin lights (Read 19956 times)

singlefish · « **on:** February 04 2013, 13:32 »

any one have experience of fitting led bulb replacements for the halogens in a bav 38 of 2003 vintage , having extracted an ole dud halogen bulb , firstly I see the lack of room a potential problem , also if they are polarity fussy could be a prob too . I understand that you need Leds with a big voltage range and have found some at reasonable price 8- 30 v .

so anyone gone down this route with good advice would love to hear .

cheers

Rampage · « **Reply #1 on:** February 04 2013, 18:40 »

Yes. We replaced all the halogen G4 bulbs with LEDs. I bought warm white ones off Ebay for about £1.00 a time. They are not polarity sensative (they've got a little diode set up to sort that problem out) and they work well for us. occasional failures but at that price I ordered a few spares and have used one or 2 since we fitted them 2 winters ago. Seeing as we live on board full time, that's not bad going..... Don't worry about all the stuff you see in someplaces about voltage stabilisation and needing to spend a fortune on the LEDs. Buy cheap and cheerful and live with a (very) occassional failure.

singlefish · « **Reply #2 on:** February 08 2013, 14:04 »

do your light fittings look like these http://bavaria.apolloduck.com/image.phtml?id=259456&image=3 , if so do you have a link to where you bought leds

cheers

stardust · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08 2013, 17:19 »

Hi
I have a Bav38 with the same lights .we replaced all with LEDs ,no problem at all. With all the cabin lights on we now use less than 1 light before. We also replaced the anchor light.

regards Bill at Stardust

Odysseus · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09 2013, 13:09 »

I have half my lights LED and half G4 halogen, these are the warm not white light ones, the white light is very cold looking.
They do not give the same luminescent as G4 lamps but are good enough to read from.

They fit the bavaria light fitting ok just a little fiddle fitting them but no issue really.

Odysses

njsail · « **Reply #5 on:** February 09 2013, 22:21 »

I use similar SMD LED lights to what Odysseus uses. Make sure you get WARM white and not bright white. I made the initial mistake of getting bright white and it was very depressing. The warm white is comfortable on the eyes and you can read with it. This was the best upgrade I made to the boat. I'm all LED now and can light up the cabin like Christmas and still have a minimal draw on the batteries. I always keep a few spares around too even thought I haven't had to replace any yet (3rd year running)

Anthony · « **Reply #6 on:** February 11 2013, 00:27 »

I have same light fittings as Singlefish.
Got replacement leds from a Texas, USA company called www.superbrightleds.com and they are reasonably priced, easily fit and warm white light brighter than the previous halogens... not dim at all.
The problem I have encountered with these light fittings is the rocker switch breaking due to a heavy handed turning on an off by a crew person.

Rampage · « **Reply #7 on:** February 11 2013, 11:20 »

OK. I source my LEDs from Ebay - loads of suppliers, some direct from the makers in China, some via stockists in UK. All of them about £1 a time or less. This link is to one such http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10X-Warm-White-G4-24-SMD-LED-Marine-Camper-RV-Car-Spotlight-Light-Bulb-Lamp-12V-/400365186695?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&hash=item5d379fee87 . The only point I'd reiterate is to make sure that they are WARM white ones; they give a little less light overall than the other type (usually calling themselves white or cold white) but the light they give is more towards the yellow; the 'cold white has much more blue in it and makes the saloon feel a little cheerless.

Edit: Just realised I failed to say that we had the same standard Bavaria fitting that seem common across the make. However. we found that the switches were dying as well as corrosion problems on the steel, so they now all been replaced with Lalizas fittings which are currently being converted to LEDs.

singlefish · « **Reply #8 on:** February 13 2013, 13:38 »

many thanks to all

orderedrd some

Trapeze Artist · « **Reply #9 on:** February 17 2013, 22:23 »

I also intend to fit LEDs, and I have the same light fittings as singlefish (2005 B30 Cruiser). How do you get the bulbs out? The whole light fitting pops out of the deck head, and the chrome surround twists off. After that I'm stuck.

MIA · « **Reply #10 on:** February 18 2013, 05:05 »

How do you get the bulbs out? The whole light fitting pops out of the deck head, and the chrome surround twists off. After that I'm stuck.

There should be a black plastic ring inside the chrome it has a staggered cut in it, pop it out with a screw driver, I just changed mine last month (not to LED)

Stevie

Trapeze Artist · « **Reply #11 on:** February 18 2013, 09:46 »

Thanks MIA. I noticed the black plastic ring but I didn''t see the gap in it (perhaps I should have had the light on

). I'll try it when I next go down to the boat. I also need to check that there is room to fit a 30mm dia LED disc, though I'm pretty sure there is.

Spirit of Mary · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23 2013, 17:11 »

I also replaced my Halogen bulbs for the led version, fitting G4. It is recommended to leave the glass off when the leds are fitted. This is because the leds need to be very cool, although there is very little heat generated from the leds.

Trapeze Artist · « **Reply #13 on:** February 24 2013, 12:51 »

I've just fitted the LEDs and I had to leave the glass cover off. The terminal wires were about 2mm longer than the original G4 bulbs, which pushed the disc to one side and prevented the plastic circlip from being refitted.

That criticism apart, I'm feeling quite pleased with them. They are a good spec (11-30v, minimal EMI, etc) at a reasonable cost. The one that I've fitted over the chart table has a dual mode of 3 red LEDs or 8 white ones, which is switched by just flicking the switch off and on again. I'd never seen that before and I thought it was very clever, all for an extra £2 or so. Likewise the anchor light bulb (so far unfitted) has a dusk-to-dawn light sensor for about £3 extra. I bought them from www.boatlamps.co.uk and delivery was very fast.

I'll be feeding back the comment about the termina length the Boatlamps, but I would nevertheless recommend them. No connection .... etc.

Spirit of Mary · « **Reply #14 on:** February 24 2013, 13:38 »

You could cut the terminal wires to get the leds better fitting. But not too short. Nevertheless I got the recommendation to leave the glass oof for better heat dissipation.

Trapeze Artist · « **Reply #15 on:** February 24 2013, 22:07 »

I already got a reply from Boatlamps, suggesting that I cut the ends off the wires. I was wary of just jumping in and doing that on my own initiative, but I certainly will do that now. I'll also question the point about leaving the front glassless for better cooling.

Very prompt response from Boatlamps means that my recommendation gets stronger.

singlefish · « **Reply #16 on:** February 25 2013, 13:41 »

fitted the leds , was a faf , but after a while got in the swing of things , i cut the pins , not a problem , seeing the tiny wee holes to stick em in was a challenge ! , I hadnt heard of leaving glass off , so didnt , lets hope thats not a prob as I dont think I would like to leave with no glass , halogens burn much hotter , infact you can touch the leds as hardly any heat .

Found I had to squeeze pins in too as different spacing , again easy ,

used long nose pliers to pull halogens out and to fit leds , they had a black plastic bitty that pins go through , I angled pins slightly to get into holes and held the black bit with pliers and offered up to holes and pushed in , job done .

fingers crossed now .

Spirit of Mary · « **Reply #17 on:** February 25 2013, 22:00 »

Indeed halogens burn much hotter, but these bulbs can handle this heat. The electronics on the led disk can't handle heat. Look at led bulbs of a certain watts (> 3W) for house lighting. These have all coolling ribs to keep the temperature below 40 - 50? degr. C The old design glow bulbs or halogen lamps don't need this.
Ger

Trapeze Artist · « **Reply #18 on:** February 25 2013, 22:25 »

I've been informed by Boatlamps that their LEDs are designed to be installed behind glass, they're tested that way, and if they were to overheat there is a thermal cut-out included on the PCB. I shall be refitting the glass when I shorten the terminal wires.

Trapeze Artist · « **Reply #19 on:** March 09 2013, 22:39 »

I used my LEDs first the first time today. They are brilliant (sorry

).

The nav lights are bright and a good colour.
The interior lights are brighter than the old halogens that went before.
The light I put over the chart table has low red or full white options. Just switch off and on again quickly to change over. Very clever.

carl125 · « **Reply #20 on:** November 25 2013, 02:21 »

I have replaced all the cabin light blubs with LED replacements. All it requires is getting the G4 style LED replacement blub with the side pins. The holgen blub comes out and these slip right in. I was amazed at how much cooler the fixtures stay with the LED. The why my cabin light come apart is to unscrew the ring that is around the lens, believe it is counter clockwise. There are 14 of the lights in the cabin so that was a hugh reduction in power use and heat. My cockpit floor lights were already LED and I replaced the arch with a couple of G4 style LEDs that are 2 color. When first turned on they come on as blue which matchs the floor and cycle power and you have white light. The type of G4 LEDs (I got from Lightingnext) in the cabin only have 12 LEDs on the disk and the cabin has more than enough light. I have not changed out the Nav light, not sure I want to. Made the anchor light if I can find the right blub that puts out enough light.

singlefish · « **Reply #21 on:** November 25 2013, 12:20 »

update on my fitting .

season gone , boat in use every weekend and holiday from 1st april to 20th october .

no problems at all with lights fitted as i described above . very happy with installation .

cheers

Bertybuoy · « **Reply #22 on:** February 17 2014, 01:47 »

I agree with most of the posters here... eBay is a good source of warm white LED replacement lamps. If you find that the 'legs' are too long, simply snip them down until they fit into the light housing and keep a few spares cut down ready for action!

tckearney · « **Reply #23 on:** April 27 2016, 14:17 »

Hi I have a B42 2000 model with original light fittings. I have just bought the following from AMAZON at £9 for 5 they are very bright and fit into the original light fittings without any modification.

LEORX 2.5 Watt, 12V AC DC G4 LED light Bulbs 140 - 160 lumens, replaces 20W halogen lamps (Warm White, 5 Bulbs)

Sold by: PixnorStore

£8.99

Ballyhoo · « **Reply #24 on:** June 13 2016, 17:26 »

Has anyone found replacements for the plastic / chrome strip lights? (fixtures not tubes).