Monday, November 12, 2012

Work Bench lights

One of the easiest upgrade on any boat is to change out old halogen or incandescent lights for LEDs'.  As TIH had no lights installed, LEDs' are an easy choice. Except for the Alpenglow lights (which are low powered fluorescent) all the lights on-board will be LEDs'.

You have to do some research, however, as there is a big difference between the earlier LED lights and later developments, ditto for cheaper LEDs' versus more expensive ones.

I chose the West Marine Platinum Series LED Dome Lights with Rotating Bezel Dimming Control.  Two all white and one Bi-Color for night use.




1 comment:

Rhys said...

Very similar to my plans, although I am adapting some existing fixtures.

I am putting together a low-buck design for single 9V batteries and single "cheap and bright" LEDs that can work with a magnetic switch mounted on Velcro inside lockers and cabinets. Open the locker lid, light goes on. Close it, light goes off. It should last a year or two per battery per light, if I can do a nice conformal spray job on all the connections. Of course, it will be only fractionally larger than the 9V battery itself. I got the idea from making a flashing red LED and battery "security system" for my older boat. I left it buried in a teak holder at my nav station: if you looked into the saloon, you would see little except this steadily blinking light. I thought it made a nice addition to the brass padlock in encouraging theives to move on.

I too like my "dualie" Alpenglow and it's going to remain my pilothouse "night light".