Interior electrical lighting

[CapnK]

I do everything electrical with an eye towards energy conservation. If I keep my energy budget low, that means less battery power I need, less of a strain on what batteries I do have, longer time I can go without having to worry about "tanking up" the batteries.

I am almost completely incandescent light free onboard "Katie", belowdecks now there are none of those fixtures left. Common incandescent bulbs draw too much energy for me, so I have switched over to LED's and fluorescents. I also have an oil lamp, but we can discuss those in their own thread, if need be. :) Here's what I have learned/done so far to be able to see while keeping amp consumption as low as possible...

The quickest, simplest way I've used is to simply get a cheap LED headlamp, and affix it in place in one way or another (see first pic below). WalMart and similar stores have a variety of headlamps available in the $7-20 range, and they work fine with one exception: they all use small batteries, AA or AAA. You can use rechargeable NiMH batteries to power them, but I prefer to have something which runs off of my house bank. That way there is no need to keep up with small batteries at all.

Another option are the small, 8 Watt fluorescents. I know Kmart sold these as "GE Sunbeam Stick-up Closet Lights", they are intended to be AA battery powered, using 8 cells. When I saw that, and did the math in my head (8 x 1.5V = 12V, a calculation that even *I* can make... ;)), I bought one immediately. This has turned out great. I disassembled the fixture, soldered wires to the battery terminals, and cut a small exit hole for the wires in the back of the fixture. These wires I then attached to wires which had fed an incandescent bulb, and voila', great light with a draw of only .6 amps/hour. That is about 1/4 of what the old fixtures needed. These lights I have seen priced from $3 on closeout up to $10 at full price, and I think either way they are a fantastic deal. One of them has served as my main cabin light for well over 6 months, haven't needed to change the bulb yet.

LED's are another electrical light source I use. I found a reading light fixture at Boaters World which retails for ~$25, it had a 20-LED "bulb" in it, and was preconfigured for 12V. The only thing I didn't like about it was that, with 20 LED's drawing at once, it used .5 amps/hour. I consider that to be excessive for LED's, and it seemed to me that the fixture didn't produce a great amount of light for having that many LED's. I know that LED's have marked differences in quality - you do pay for what you get. In my case, I decided to "fix" the problem by making my own LED bulb. I used 4 high-output LED's that I'd gotten from a car store (like Auto Zone, or Advance - great places to find pre-wired-for-12V LED's gizmos), a cotter pin, some electrical tape, and some epoxy putty to make a "bulb" which outshines the original, at 1/5th of its energy draw. I'll post some pics of it sometime.

Here's a LED headlamp, screwed to a bulkhead:

[oded kishony]

Wow CapnK, what terrific ideas. I have an under counter galley light that's falling apart, the flourescent would work great there.

I've been using a flourescent camping light for most of the lighting in the saloon, 4D cells last the whole summer-I've even used this light as an anchor light since my boat doesn't have a mathead anchor light. I haul it up the forestay.
I'm thinking of using a small (8") 'huricane' lamp as an anchor light, also on the forestay.  Think that would be ok?

Thanks,
Oded Kishony

~~_/) ~~

[captedteach]

Sorta on this subject - I picked up a LED replacement bulb for one of my 2AA MiniMag Lites today.  I guess I need to intall it and see how well it werks.  Other little conversions that make sense are instrument bulbs and courtesy lights - of course in a kewl color that does not kill your nite vision. 

[CharlieJ]

JUST last evening finished installing new lighting in the fore and main cabin of Tehani. A friend of mine in St Loius builds LED arrays. The ones we have have 12 yellow/whites and 4 reds in each fixture. Double pole, double throw switches on each panel. They won't give you enough light to relax with a book, but the WILL light the entire cabin for conversation or finding things. The over all light level is quite good and the amp draw is minescule.

[CharlieJ]

More on my LED lighting.

first - that is a SINGLE pole, double throw switch.

Second- I just emailed and got a response form the guy who built my lights ( he sells them by the way). He tells me that each row of 4 LEDs pulls 60 MILLIAMPS, so my 3 rows of 4 LEDS would pull a total of 180 milliamps. Both lights left on would draw 360 milliamps. Looks like many months on my Grp 27 battery  ;D

[hearsejr]

 I wonder if those GE Sunbeam  lights, would be enough light and be better on the batteries if I replaced the whole main cabin lighting with them? the old C-27 had 4 in the main saloon, then one in the head, one in th closet, and 2 in the v-birth. I am going to place some red led truc running lights from walmart, for the inside cabin while under way when I just want to go below for a sandwich or to change the music or something. I want to try the GE Sunbeam idea.
thanks
Bill

[captedteach]

I installed the LED replacement bulb in my minimag - Unlike the factory bulb that can be focused the led is either on or off  BUT it is bright and seems to have a good enuff pattern that it would not need to focus.  I think you also lose the 'candle' mode of the flash light but I never saw any need for that anyway

The conversion is made by Nite Eyes and retails for 5.00 at Wally World 

NOW does anyone know where to find those colored lenses for minimags - They used to be all over the place and now that I want one I cant find them

[CapnK]

CJ - Would you do me a favor? Would you email Jobst and ask him to come over here? Besides the LED's he makes and sells (which he can post about - support a fellow SB/LD sailor! :D), I think he would be a good candidate for a member here with his experience.

Which reminds me - I wonder where Marlin is? I know he's joined, I was looking forward to the sailFar'ers who don't know about him hearing about *his* adventures. :D (He's got some great books, and a great website too).

[CharlieJ]

Will do on Jobst.

As for Marlin- it's boat show time- I imagine he's doing several promoting his books, but I'll send him an email also.

[oded kishony]

I noticed in one of the catalogues (defender?) that they are selling white led lights as replacemnts bulbs for  different types of bases (screw, bayonet etc) They're pricey but given their much longer life and low  amp draw, could be a good choice.

Oded Kishony

[Solace]

I have several places where I am using LED replacement bulbs throughout my boat.
They can actually accent the boat quite well, but you'll go blind trying to read or work by them.

They do cut down on the power consumption though.

John

[Pixie Dust]

I have several places where I am using LED replacement bulbs throughout my boat.
They can actually accent the boat quite well, but you'll go blind trying to read or work by them.John

I was thinking of doing the same thing.  Glad to have the info regarding the reading aspect.  Lets me know where *not* to change to LED.   ::)

[AdriftAtSea]

I'm in the process of converting all of Pretty Gee's lights to LED-based ones. This includes both navigation and cabin lights.  Instead of replacing the light fixtures in the cabin, I'm planning on using LED-array replacement bulbs from: http://tinyurl.com/yst2o

For navigation lights, I've replaced my masthead anchor light with a OGM TriAnchor/Strobe.  It can be used as an anchor light, a tricolor for under sail or as a warning strobe.  It draws one-fifth of what the older anchor light drew. 

Another good choice for interior lights are the solar-powered walkway lights.  I am going to be using a few of these as deck lights for the cockpit and such.  They aren't extremely bright, but do not add to the electrical load on the boat for the most part.  Leave them out in the cockpit in the day time to charge, and at night, you'll have a lot of free light.  Most have a photocell, so they'll only turn on when the sun goes down.