LED cabin lights

[Roger L]

Looking to replace the high hats in my cabin with leds. They are slim high hats 6” diameter bezel and have a 4 1/2” diameter that goes into ceiling. I can’t seem to find anything this size in 12 volt. Any leads?

 

[Seevee]

Looking to replace the high hats in my cabin with leds. They are slim high hats 6” diameter bezel and have a 4 1/2” diameter that goes into ceiling. I can’t seem to find anything this size in 12 volt. Any leads?

A pix and a bit more details could help, but there a lot of great vendors that offer LED lights.

 

[OldDan1943]

Hmmm, let's see.
Comes in 'warm' and bright, BRIGHT white with a tinge of what appears to be blue.
Not all LEDs are dim-able, I am told.
You may have to cut back on the length of the wire.... They are long enough so as to allow for bending the wires if necessary.

 

[Bacchus]

Are you looking to replace fixtures or bulbs?
Pic would help.
I replaced all bulbs in salon/saloon and head fixtures... center recessed as well as side pucks but only needed to replace the bulbs. Same with bilge lights

 

[RedRascal]

For bulbs I like these guys https://www.superbrightleds.com/ They provide specs for their bulbs and lights which is very helpful if you are looking for a particular color temperature or certain lumen level. More expensive than ebay or amazon however I feel like I know what I am buying. Descriptions on ebay and amazon can often be false or misleading.

 

[Roger L]

Led lights

The bulbs I ordered have a thicker base and did not fit in the pucks, I will do mor research. I did not open high hat. So you are saying there are led replacement bulbs for the high hats as well?

 

[Bacchus]

Absolutely...
I agree with RedRascal re Superbrightleds.com. I stated with another supplier and they burned out or started to flicker rather quickly. You want bulbs rated for 5? Or 10?-30V and they will last.
Those are both G4 bases. Here's a link to their G4s
https://www.superbrightleds.com/search/led-bi-pin/g4+base/
I used the flat discount type for both the hi hat and pucks. You just need the smaller dia flat to fit in the pucks due to the small reflector size.
If you open the hihats you will find a similar arrangement with a larger reflector.
Check the specs and get the color / temp you prefer. Only caution I went with brighter (hi lumens) and they are very bright. We end up using the side pucknlights most of the time.
The bilge lights on mine take the same G4 and the brightest ones work well there.

 

[ranger58sb]

The bulbs I ordered have a thicker base and did not fit in the pucks, I will do mor research. I did not open high hat. So you are saying there are led replacement bulbs for the high hats as well?

There are LED replacement "bulbs" for many fixtures. I get ours from marinebeam.com, and FWIW they also have lots of useful info about connection types (G4, wedge, Edison, etc.), light "quantity" (lumens), color temperature (warm, bright, etc.) and so forth on their site. AFAIK, all of their LEDs are rated for 10-30V.

-Chris

 

[wkearney99]

I have had very good results ordering LEDs from Nate at Marinebeam.com

It is true that not all LED elements are dimmable. It's also true that some boat wiring and dimmers are terrible for LEDs that ARE dimmable. I ran into this with the DRSA dimmers in our EB47. Suffice to say if you've got those kinds of dimmers (which you probably wouldn't know unless you found them and looked at the labeling) then you WILL have additional wiring changes necessary.

 

[Roger L]

Led lights

No dimmers, should make it easier

 

[Xlantic]

I like "natural or "daylight" color (~400ºK) rather than warm (too redish) or cold (too bluish).

And I find the color rendering index (CRI) to be critical. The CRI measures how continuous and similar to sunlight is the spectrum of the light given by the bulb.

A CRI of 80% is the absolute minimum for me and 90% is preferred. And if the CRI is not specified by the manufacturer I am suspect and assume the worst.

 

[Cartouche]

Looking to replace the high hats in my cabin with leds. They are slim high hats 6” diameter bezel and have a 4 1/2” diameter that goes into ceiling. I can’t seem to find anything this size in 12 volt. Any leads?

whats the boat?? if its a 390 I have just changed all mine

 

[wkearney99]

I like "natural or "daylight" color (~400ºK) rather than warm (too redish) or cold (too bluish).

And I find the color rendering index (CRI) to be critical. The CRI measures how continuous and similar to sunlight is the spectrum of the light given by the bulb.

A CRI of 80% is the absolute minimum for me and 90% is preferred. And if the CRI is not specified by the manufacturer I am suspect and assume the worst.

You're right on CRI ranges but the color temps are typically 2700k (typical incandescent) to 6500k (fluorescent tubes). I find 4000k too much like a retail store level of "bright white". It's great for a workbench, reading light or maybe galley lighting. But for cabins or anything being dimmed I greatly prefer the warmer tones found in the 2700 and 3000k range. I've never found the notion of 5000k "daylight" color temps to be anything other than too stark for boat interior lighting.

 

[DennisB1]

Look at Lunasea or Dr Led for different types of LED light bulbs. I would assume that they have a replacement for your existing light bulbs. I am assuming that you have halogen lights which run very hot and draw a good number of amps also true for the incandescent lights. I changed to LEDs and went from 30 watts per ceiling fixture to less than 6 watts. Big difference in required power out of the batteries and fixture temperature.

 

[Comodave]

I just changed out all of the 20+ lights in our new boat. The PO left about 20 3000k LED lights. My wife insisted that I buy new ones as she wanted 4000k lights. So I did. Anyone want a bunch of warm white LED lights? Yours for the shipping.

 

[kthoennes]

Funny, I can't stand that cold, blue-ish, operating room 4000k light, so I actually bought two entire sets of replacement bulbs because the first "warm whites" I bought were still too cold and blue and unnatural for my taste. I'm good, don't need them, but funny how we all have our own preferences.

 

[wkearney99]

Other surface colors in the space can affect how the lighting appears.

I have some 4000k lights in the exterior spreader lights now, and had old-school Perko incandescents up there before. If turn them on at night after a day out on the water I swear the color temp is a "being abducted by aliens" kind of vibe. Beam me up!

Likewise, putting them in the salon or cabins really clashed with all the teak. It was just too stark. I find that a warmer tone is much more pleasing on the eyes. But that's just my preference too.

 

[Xlantic]

It is the 6000ºK bulbs that are bluish, similar to fluorescent lights in office settings.

The warm white are 3000ºK which I find a bit too reddish, particularly for the inside of a dark-wood panelled boat.

I find the 4000ºK, which have recently become more available, to be ideal. They are only slightly less warm than a traditional halogen lamp.

But it is a matter of personal choice. I have read that in colder climates the general preference is for warmer colours and vice-versa.

 

[kthoennes]

I continue to be amazed at the efficiency of LED's. The previous halogen G4 bulbs were 20 watts each and hotter than the surface of the sun. We had 26 (!!) G4 fixtures on the boat. 520 watts if they were all on at the same time. Replaced them with warm white LED's, almost indistinguishable from the halogens. Slightly dimmer (fewer lumens) even though they claimed equivalency, although it was so close that as I changed them it was sometimes hard to tell which ones I had already changed and which ones were still halogen. I'd just put my hand on the lens to see whether it was hot. Yes, some of the LED bulbs were duds, and yes, they were polarized so I had to reverse some of them as I put them in. And yeah, they very gradually degrade rather than suddenly burning out. But we went from 520 watts to 50. Heck, our new 7 cu ft high efficiency refrigerator pulls 25 watts when it's cycling (well, although that's on AC, the lights are 12v DC I know). But just amazing anyway.

 

[PennBruce]

What's a "high hat"?

Thanks,

Bruce

Looking to replace the high hats ....

 

[Datenight]

I continue to be amazed at the efficiency of LED's. The previous halogen G4 bulbs were 20 watts each and hotter than the surface of the sun. .... But we went from 520 watts to 50. Heck, our new 7 cu ft high efficiency refrigerator pulls 25 watts when it's cycling (well, although that's on AC, the lights are 12v DC I know). But just amazing anyway.

We had the same experience on the green boat. The G4's in the saloon drew 10 amps when all were on. After replacing with LED's the draw went down to 1 amp. I did commit the heresy of buying the LED's from an eBay supplier for $1.00 each. Just bought an extra 5 but never had to use them.

Rob

 

[kthoennes]

Yep, I used ebay too. So cheap I figured if I had any duds, no big deal. No duds, not one. I also replaced the aft and forward berth gooseneck reading lights. Four of them, made by Hella, really expensive "marine grade." They were halogen too, hot as a welding arc, with wiring so poor and flimsy one fixture left a burn mark on the fiberglass near the base. Replaced them with touch led goosenecks, with USB chargers in the base, dimmable, with a blue nightlight feature, for 10% of the previous power draw.

 

[Slowmo]

If you are unable to find a new fixtures that will fit your spaces you can rewire them with LED panels. You can try a bulb swap, I didn't find they gave enough light so I rewired to use flat LED panel. I found a pair of LED wafer lights gave plenty of light. The benefit of the wafers is that all of the LEDs are on one side so you get maximum direct light output.

 

[Roger L]

Went to the boat and checked each fixture indeed all have replaceable bulbs. Forward stateroom fixtures seem to have reflector as part of the bulb. Will investigate.

 

[wkearney99]

Went to the boat and checked each fixture indeed all have replaceable bulbs. Forward stateroom fixtures seem to have reflector as part of the bulb. Will investigate.

If you've got the kind that use springs to hold the fixture onto the ceiling be careful with them. They'll either snap the hell out of your fingers or pop loose.

The ones in my Grand Banks are like damned mousetraps for the fingers.

But the ones in my friend's Azimut have a tendency to pop the spring loose and chuck it off into the cavity above the ceiling panels. I used my wifi inspection camera to find them for him. But the design of the frame on them is sketchy, at best and I had to cobble up a bit of DIY retainer for it to keep it from coming loose again.