ER lights

[caltexflanc]

Well there are plenty of other sources for the same information. For instance:

Controlling LED lighting systems: introducing the LED driver - LEDs

I've heard of burn outs and the interference issue when people tried cheapo leds on boats. Just was a discussion on that on another forum. Anyway, only time will tell, now won't it? Your installations look really nice, by the way.

 

[N4712]

ER Lights?

I was browsing ebay and came across these. Going get some and try them in our lazzerette.
LED Lamp 1ft 30cm T5 6W LED Tube Light 2835 300mm Warm White 2800 3500K | eBay

 

[Underway]

Could not paste link so hope these pics work. View attachment 29618View attachment 29619

I just took some 20g wire soldered (I'm very inexperienced, but it was easy) to the cut to length strip light. I hobby glued the lights to the aluminum trays. And cleaned up with white shrink wrap.

I'll send pics of the connections later when home. If you need more light you can double up with pre made connectors. Actually you can cut the connectors and use half for your link to the power source. View attachment 29620



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Before I redid the undercounter lighting in our kitchen I looked for fixtures that were wide enough to accommodate multiple strips, as a single string of even the brightest strip lighting I could find (5630's) were not enough to flood the counter tops. I ended up fabricating/ganging three parallel LED strips into a single array to get the job done (and six parallel lengths of 5630 strip lights ganged together on a 4"'x32" corrugated plastic "board" to properly illuminate the cooktop). I anticipate the same problem in the engine room on our boat...a single length of strip lights won't throw all that much light in that dark space....at least not the LED strips that I have experimented with. Which series of LED strip lights are you using? Have you seen any fixtures (with covers) that are wide enough to accommodate more than one run of LED strip? Thanks

 

[nautibeaver]

I have not but did not look that hard for them, I did use 2x of the aluminum trays referenced above for 2 spots to increase the brightness. Oddly enough, when replaced our undercounted lights in the house with LEDs I ended up getting a dimmer because the wife thought it was too bright. The light direction is mostly down so I did install them all over (In the engine room) and it was much brighter that the 4 x large Fluorescent and numerous 12v lights together.

I am using the the 600led strips rather than the 300led. Not sure if that changes things.




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[Underway]

NB,

OK, thanks. The 600/5 meter strips are probably the lower intensity 3528. The brighter 5630s (possibly some others) are 300/5M. Significant improvement in brightness with the 5630s in my experience. (Our kitchen is very dark with dark cabinets and only one window).

By the way, I've had good experience with an EBAY company whose Ebay Store is HKESUPPLIER. The HK is for Hong Kong, and they drop ship (free) directly to your house. I've purchased their 5M reels of strip light reels, connectors, and both their 6 and 10 amp power supplies. So far so good....

 

[markpierce]

Brightness has been my concern with the strips used for task lighting instead of mood lighting. I currently have some halogen puck lights in one area, but they get hot! Do you feel they'd be bright enough to work under-cabinet for kitchen tasks?

I have 24-volt strip lights behind valances in the pilothouse and saloon. Here shows the effect of strip lights in the pilothouse. Check them out in person next week.

 

[caltexflanc]

Here is another alternative in converting fluorescent to LED. After seeing them on another boat, I was pretty impressed; I know i sound like a tout for this company, and maybe I am as a satisfied customer. The fluorescents in my ERs and generator room haven't burned out yet, so direct experience with these "fluorescent replacements".

LED Fluorescent Replacements 12V and 24V

 

[Rick.]

Have most of you gone with bright white or warm for ER LEDs'? I'm leaning towards bright as mine is mostly bilgekote grey & Volvo green.....

Thanks!

 

[fryedaze]

I prefer the bright white for the ER. There are a lot of different opinions on this subject here on TF. Some find the bright white harsh. I dont, I have bright white through out the boat. I think it give more light.

 

[Cathy and David]

Buyer Be Aware

The fluorescent strip lights typically sold at Home Depot and Lowes are not worth the money you pay. The ballast (transformers) are usually made in China and sometimes do not work new out of the box. Pay more and get a good quality light no matter what source LED or fluorescent. I would personally stay away from halogen or incandescent (energy hogs).

 

[rwidman]

Have most of you gone with bright white or warm for ER LEDs'? I'm leaning towards bright as mine is mostly bilgekote grey & Volvo green.....

Thanks!

In the engine room, as with an anchor light, the idea is to get the most light for the least amount of heat and power so bright white would be the choice. In the cabin or galley, warm white is a better choice.

 

[nautibeaver]

I went with bright white in the ER and warm elsewhere in the boat.


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[Edelweiss]

I agree. . . I converted my existing ER lights to bright white LED and I'm very pleased with the results. I'm going to add four more addition lights to brighten it even more.

 

[FlyWright]

Agreed...cool white in the ER, warm white in the cabin.

 

[ranger58sb]

I replaced the five original incandescent bulbs in our engine room with bright (cool) white T15 wedges: 15w equivalent, 36 LEDs on each. That brought power consumption on the 15-amp circuit down to 1 amp. It was a good improvement, but now I'm getting ready to finish the lighting project.

I've gotten in a 5m flexible rope of "natural" white (4000K) weatherproof LEDs, and I'm going to tie that into the same circuit. Boatloads of lumens at only 4.5 amps. See Search Results For "wfls-nw300x3-wht" | LED Products | Super Bright LEDs for details. (I think I would have slightly preferred products from marinebeam.com, but couldn't find a semi-equivalent from them that suited my plan.)

I'm probably intending to install with simple "mounting" zip ties and stainless screws every X inches or so, since the underside (i.e., engine room side) of the saloon sole is wood framing and easily accessible. It looks like it's actually possible to screw right through the connecting fabric between the two power wires, but I'm not sure that fabric might not tear through. Final action TBD.

I don't have the physical lay-out of the "snake" cast in concrete yet, but I'm hoping to use this first rope as an experiment, covering only one side of the engine room. If the amp meter proves I've still got headroom on the 15-amp circuit, then I hope to add yet another rope to cover the other side of the engine room.

-Chris

 

[Billylll]

It's bright white for my ER's. I prefer electric blue for accent lighting. Warm white and red combination fixtures for the ceiling and areas where direct light is needed.
Bill

 

[Daddyo]

One of my clients (an engineer and car tuner) put the rope lights in his engine room under and around the engine (mounted low). This was to fill in the shadow areas that are otherwise unavoidable with ceiling lights only. I think it's a great idea especially for tighter engine rooms.

 

[ranger58sb]

Hmmm... nice idea, Mark, if I can put in a second rope, maybe I'll examine the idea of one overhead and one lower down. Thanks.

-Chris

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

One of my clients (an engineer and car tuner) put the rope lights in his engine room under and around the engine (mounted low). This was to fill in the shadow areas that are otherwise unavoidable with ceiling lights only. I think it's a great idea especially for tighter engine rooms.

I guess that would be "Jolie"?

 

[ranger58sb]

Hmmm... nice idea, Mark, if I can put in a second rope, maybe I'll examine the idea of one overhead and one lower down. Thanks.

-Chris

So the last segment of my planning was still in the theoretical stages, and just now I've taken another step toward pinning that down. Turns out, it's a 10-amp circuit, not 15 as I had originally hoped.

That in turn means only one rope of this particular size (amps); the existing fixtures (~1 amp) and the new rope (4.5 amps) leaves me less headroom for additional lighting.

Still, maybe I can add either some additional fixtures, and/or a smaller rope, once I get done with this next stage.

In any case, I'm shooting for "operating room" ambience.

-Chris

 

[Pura Vida]

I love these threads, it gets me fired up to make some positive changes to my boat. The admiral is not so sure about me reading about others projects.

 

[denloe1]

I was considering putting the led rope inside clear soft PVC to protect it. Good ideas about down low mounting some of these as well.

 

[jwnall]

I was considering putting the led rope inside clear soft PVC to protect it.

Wouldn't that increase the heat factor for the diodes? As I understand it, an LED does not take heat all that well.

 

[denloe1]

Watts per foot are pretty low on the led ropes. Have not had time to play with this yet. Not liking the PO 110v T15 shop lights. 3 sets of 2 48" ones. Bright but too exposed. Saw some cool looking led fixtures at member recommended sites but out of stock and expensive.

 

[MartySchwartz]

Here is another alternative in converting fluorescent to LED. After seeing them on another boat, I was pretty impressed; I know i sound like a tout for this company, and maybe I am as a satisfied customer. The fluorescents in my ERs and generator room haven't burned out yet, so direct experience with these "fluorescent replacements".

LED Fluorescent Replacements 12V and 24V

I actually replaced all the 12" fluorescent tubes on our boat with these (from and RV store, much less expensive). I have been using them a little over a year now and am very happy with the results. I used the strip lights elsewhere and used the little round LED assemblies to replace the bulbs in the round stainless and glass fixtures. I have replace all the 12-volt Lightning on the boat with LEDs (except the navigation lights) and power consumption has gone down about 70%.

Marty..........................

 

[Larry M]

I would suggest going with the led strip lights as I have done. I little soldering and about 20$ a light. Less than 1 watt of burn and 50k hour life span. Everything can be purchased from amazon and 1/10 the cost of pre made.

...How did you attach the aluminum channel to the overhead? I assume small sheet metal screws? Also did you wire the lighting direct to the existing wiring from the dome lights? Your set up looks very good and I have been contemplating the same type set up. The 4 dome lights I have really don't throw enough light.

Nautibeaver: They worked just as you described! Thanks for posting.

We bought 4 channels from Torch Star: 3 3ft Shallow Flush Mount Aluminum Channel U Shape for Flex Hard LED Strip Light | eBay

and the LED lights from:
Super Bright 5630 White 5M 300 LED Fleixbe Light Strip Party Home Decoration SMD | eBay

I cut the LED lights into 1 meter lengths and soldered on a pig tail. The LEDs come with 3M sticky tape to the back, so they stick to the channel. Each channel came with a lense, 2 end caps and 2 mounting clips. I should have ordered another channel since have exactly 1 meter of LED strip left. You could easily cut the channels to 1/2 meter but you would need to order more end caps and mounting clips. Less than $20/light mounted.

 

[ranger58sb]

I replaced the five original incandescent bulbs in our engine room with bright (cool) white T15 wedges: 15w equivalent, 36 LEDs on each. That brought power consumption on the 15-amp circuit down to 1 amp. It was a good improvement, but now I'm getting ready to finish the lighting project.

I've gotten in a 5m flexible rope of "natural" white (4000K) weatherproof LEDs, and I'm going to tie that into the same circuit. Boatloads of lumens at only 4.5 amps. See Search Results For "wfls-nw300x3-wht" | LED Products | Super Bright LEDs for details. (I think I would have slightly preferred products from marinebeam.com, but couldn't find a semi-equivalent from them that suited my plan.)

I'm probably intending to install with simple "mounting" zip ties and stainless screws every X inches or so, since the underside (i.e., engine room side) of the saloon sole is wood framing and easily accessible. It looks like it's actually possible to screw right through the connecting fabric between the two power wires, but I'm not sure that fabric might not tear through. Final action TBD.

I don't have the physical lay-out of the "snake" cast in concrete yet, but I'm hoping to use this first rope as an experiment, covering only one side of the engine room. If the amp meter proves I've still got headroom on the 15-amp circuit, then I hope to add yet another rope to cover the other side of the engine room.

-Chris

So now I've just added a 5m (16.4') "rope" of high-lumen LEDs. The product is http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...s-x3-wht/1622/. Weatherproof, flexible, 6300 lumens, Natural White (aka bright, 5600°K.), nominally 4.5 amps for the complete rope. I would normally have ordered something like this from marinebeam.com, but didn't recognize a good choice there.

A couple BEFORE and AFTER photos:

The pics were all taken with the port engine room hatch open, cockpit day hatch open, no flash. The BEFORE pics were taken yesterday, bright and sunny in the saloon overhead and cockpit. The AFTER pics were taken this morning, dull and overcast in the saloon and cockpit.

I spliced into the existing 10-amp circuit between the 4th and 5th fixtures, and then routed the rope to match the engine room's asymmetry in the forward section. I hung the rope with screw-mount zip-ties spaced about 1' apart using #8 x 5/8" self-tapping screws. The rope comes with adhesive backing, but I just don't think that would last long in this kind of environment. The last foot or so of the LED rope, on the starboard side ahead of the engine, is only temporarily hung; I can't reach that very well from the front (stuff gets in the way of the drill), but I'll re-visit that next time I have the starboard engine room hatch lifted.

The connectors were simple appropriately-sized heat-shrink ring terminals (sized for #8 studs) added to the existing 12 AWG boat wiring (where I made the cuts) and to the 20 AWG leads from the new light rope... and then all three positives were screwed together using #8 x 1/2" screws/two flat washers/Nylock nuts, all three negatives screwed together ditto, Voila!

My intent now is to see how this product works, especially in the engine room environment... and then if it's still good early next year, I'll look to add another whole LED rope further toward the stern. The nominal 4.5 amp consumption with this first rope leaves me a little leeway... and it happens in the analog ammeter on that battery bank, it actually only looks like 4 amps added on the circuit. Anyway, future planning will have to take T15s in the original fixtures and this new 4.5 amp load into account, along with some reserve on the circuit for safety's sake.

Lighting is MUCH better. In fact, we just replaced some engine hoses on Monday (from strainers to water pumps) and I'm getting ready to clean up after that... and the new lighting makes it MUCH easier to see where I need to put most of my attention for that.

-Chris

 

[FlyWright]

bad image links above...

 

[ranger58sb]

bad image links above...

Sorry, I don't really have a way to post pics here, then.

When I copied/pasted the thread from what I posted on our owner's club forum, it acts (to me) like the pics are visible... so that was sort of a surprise, and I didn't further edit any of the text.

If you can't see 'em, I guess that means it would require access to the club's private area.

The text version is that there's a nifty improvement between before and after

-Chris

 

[nautibeaver]

Looks great Larry. I moved on to another project. Color changing led (5050s) in the flybrdige. I mounted them to the SS rails on the enclosure. Hard to see them when not on and can turn lights on and off via IPhone on and off the boat. They have been known to light up the place in Oregon state beaver orange and Seahawks blue and green! I was able to hide most the wires and the controls utilize wifi signaling. For those with canvas tops on the Flybridge, I would consider. I will post pictures when I get back int he states next week.


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