Replacing interior light bulbs

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sailorbob
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:55 pm

Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by sailorbob »

I'm looking to replace a burned out bulb (halogen?) in one of the ceiling lights - the chromed plastic hockey puck shaped lights with the black ring that moves to direct the light. I've seen one post that says the black ring is actually two pieces that snap together. Can anyone elaborate on that? It's hard for me to visualize.

Also, I want to remove the milk glass shades on the wall-mounted sconces, to clean them (and ultimately to replace bulbs when they go). The shades don't unscrew, so I bet something inside the shade unscrews or snaps off. There's not much room to work in there. How do these come apart?

Please note that I am not looking to replace these bulbs with LEDs.

Thanks.

Bob
Second Wind - #301
malexander24
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:17 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by malexander24 »

If you run your fingernail on the outside of the black plastic, you will feel the lip of the ring that holds the glass which covers the bulb. It took me a while too to understand what it took to remeove the bulb. I will try to attach some photos.

Mark Alexander
m&m #162
Kerr Lake NC
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Mark Alexander
SV M & M
Kerr Lake NC
#162
sailorbob
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:55 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by sailorbob »

Mark, thanks very much for the reply and photos. I was able to run my finger nail between the two halves of the black plastic ring and split them - the lens dropped out as predicted in another post, and voila - access to the bulb! The part I had not understand is that the two halves of the ring are an upper and lower half, not left and right. I put in a 10w bulb, but could not read the wattage on the dead bulb. Anybody know what the correct wattage is?

I am still looking for guidance on the wall lights with the frosted glass shades - how to get them apart?

Thanks.

Bob
Second Wind #301
Air Mobility
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:57 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by Air Mobility »

Bob (and anyone else that uses this bulb and fixture)

I repaired several of these overhead fixtures when I first got this boat. Most of the small switches had gone bad. Be very careful which replacement bulb you use. I picked up a package of the same bulb type, but with a 20 watt rating from Home Depot. The larger size bulb caught the fixture on fire after only 10 minutes of use. If I had not been sitting there with my wife and a friend, I believe I would have lost the boat to fire. It started very fast and melted the fixture in just a few minutes. Just a word of caution to everone using these halogon bulbs. They are small, bright and light weight, but just use the correct wattage.

I use a mixture of halogon and LED bulbs in these fixtures depending on the intended use. I find the halogon bulbs are better for my senior eyes when reading.

George
Air Mobility
Hull # 158
Pgtjs
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:13 am
Location: Blaine WA

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by Pgtjs »

I have just experienced a situation which confirms one should not replace the 10w halogen with a 20w. I did not read this forum before I did such, but the fire risk is real. In my case I left the light (above the sink area) on with a new 20w halogen bulb for several hours whilst I was motoring in bad weather. When I came below, I noticed the lower black plastic rim was hanging down and in fact had partially melted. After I turned it off and the unit cooled down, the glass difuser was stuck in place and cannot be retrieved at this time as the surrounding plastic has changed shape around it.

Incidentally, like another in this forum, I need extra light to read at night and the prescribed 10w unit is not enough. In fact, the placement of all the overhead and sconce lights is poorly thought out IMHO.

I wonder if the LED unit will be any better for reading? What brand and model have others installed? I dont know much about them but can one get brighter versions? Do I have to replace the whole fixture? If I get the glass difuser piece out intact, why not leave the 20w halogen bulb in place and surely that would allow enough ventilation around it? How do I know about the polarity of the LED unit in advance and whether it will be a problem?

All comments and advice will be appreciated.

Cheers,
Geoff.S., Semiahmoo, WA.
jking
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 6:31 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by jking »

GLASS COVER
In response to using the bulb without the glass cover in order to keep a 20W bulb cool, do not do this, the halogen bulbs emit UV light and can cause skin cancer if used without a glass cover. Very bad for your health. (now that I think of it half the lights in the 350 are the sconce type lights without a cover), the clearly the designers are not aware of this issue. (source Italian Study University of Genoa Dept. of preventative Medicine 1999, http://mutage.oxfordjournals.org/conten ... 3.full.pdf)

LED POLARITY
With reference to LED lights almost all LEDs have a rectifier built in to make sure the polarity of the power to the LED is correct. Most LEDs are not as bright as the 10W halogen bulbs at this point in time (2012). In the next few years they may catch up in brightness, the main benefit is lower power consumption. I have tried out one LED light, 25mm in diameter in the galley and it is almost as bright as the 10W (purchased from LED wholesalers.com, its pretty good, but a bit expensive at $8 off ebay. If you do buy bulbs I recommend that they work at voltages above 12V (ie. have a built in power supply) as most of the cheaper LEDs do not have this and burn out quickly without the voltage protection.

Jan King
Friendship II
Fat Cat

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by Fat Cat »

We have the 10 watt xenon bulbs on our boat. They apparently operate at a lower temperature than the halogens, but are still quite hot. The light output and quality are very similar to halogens. I am considering converting a couple of salon ceiling lights to LED's, if only to save some energy.

Fat Cat #258
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digitalvillager
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 1:23 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by digitalvillager »

http://www.superbrightleds.com/search/l ... G4%20Lamp/
One of our overhead Halogens burned out and a sailor friend directed us to the site listed above. We purchased the 10HP-LED. It was easy to install, generates no heat and consumes very little electricity. If you are not looking directly at the fixture, it is impossible to tell whether the light is coming from a Halogen or the LED. We are on the boat EVERY weekend (weekend retirees) and it is the first light to come on and the last to get turned off.
Charlie & Jeanne Monroe
PO Hull #285
Amelia Island, Florida
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TBOT422
Posts: 424
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:36 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by TBOT422 »

I understand the reasoning for replacing the halogen lights with LED due to the heat generated (particularly the warning about 20 watt bulbs that melt the housing and could catch on fire), but I don't see the big deal in energy savings. The 10 watt halogen should draw about 0.8 amp. There is geneally not more than a couple of hours from sunset to bed time, so the electrical consumption of the fixture is maybe 2-3 amp-hours/day at most. When compared to the fridge that probably consumes over 100 amp-hours/day, the light fixtures are small potatoes in the power consumption planning on a boat. I can't see spending $10-$15 for an LED bulb rather than $1-$2 for a halogen bulb in an attempt to 'save energy'. What am I missing?
Gary & Janet
The Best of Times (Hull #422)
jking
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 6:31 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by jking »

Hi,
We replaced all of the light bulbs on our boat with LEDs for less than $100. Not only does it save power, Catalina does not seem to know that the halogen bulbs are not approved for safety without a glass cover at they emit UV light, as some of the bulbs are exposed.
Jan #303
AynB
Posts: 88
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:13 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by AynB »

Addressing Gary and Janet:

Here's our two cents on the cabin LED topic.
One 20 Watt Halogen at 12 VDC draws 1.6 Amps.
One 2 Watt 20 Watt equivalent LED at 12 VDC draws 0.6 Amps.
One lamp will not illuminate the cabin to read or participate in activities. We find that we need at least 3 lamps running.
Halogen then uses 4.8 Amps, LED's use 1.8.
Our activity drops off around 10PM, so we can count on running 3 hours.
Halogen then uses 14.4 Amp/hr and the LED uses 5.4 .
Our generator / charger system puts out 30 Amps initially and drops down to 5 Amps over time depending upon charge state.
This functionally means that I have to run the generator about 1/2 hour just to put the charge back in that I have used for cabin Halogen lights. It also means that I have to run the generator for about 10 minutes to do the same with the LED. That's about 20 minutes of noisy, stinky generator that I( and my neighbors ) don't have to put up with at anchor.
The BIGGER culprit is the Anchor Light - the very first LED we changed out. Turning on at dusk and off at daybreak, we often have that lamp on for 10 hours. That's 16 Amp/hr for the Halogen and 6 Amp hours for the LED. Again about a half hour to replace charge for the Halogen and about ten minutes for the LED.
If we were still running Halogens, we would be running the generator for about an hour just to replace what we used for lighting v.s. 20 minutes with LED.
Yeah, the fridge is the worst, but my record keeping suggests that the unit consumes about 60 Amp Hours a day.
Our habit is that we get the first night away from a marina and the next day with no generator run. Then from there on out - assuming no traveling, we can get by with one hour of generator on day 2, two hours on day three and two 2 hour runs on days four and five. Then it stabilizes and we can keep the batteries between 60% and 80% charge.
leigh weiss
Posts: 208
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:32 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by leigh weiss »

To all who unplug from the dock!

Your calculations about power consumption and recharge times seem to be spot on.
We have replaced all of the lights with LED's including the anchor light and running lights. Besides the power savings, the
high heat and UV generation safety issues make this a wise choice for us.
When we are on the boat at night we tend to have many lights on in the main cabin.
Power generation is provided by two 85 watt solar panels with a Blue Sky controller. This system will keep up with our electrical needs sans the refrig on hot days. For that we have to run our generator about every two or three days when we are on the hook. We have made some mods to the refrig. (see the posts about the refrigerator) and noticed lower power consumption, lower temp. and better duty cycle. This combined with the LEDs has greatly improved our battery recharge cycles. We have a 3.5 Kw NextGen installed and found this to be a great asset for the topping up of the batteries while cruising. (we try to sail most of the time)
We have also installed a 110 Amp Alternator with an ARS-V external voltage regulator driven with a flat serpentine six rib belt and a Xantrex 2kw inverter with a 100 amp charger (used with the generator)
All of this is recharging our 2x4D AGM house batteries.
We will be putting this system to another test for a month trip to Block Island in July. (on the hook in salt pond)


Leigh and Donna Brisa #155
Leigh and Donna Weiss
Brisa #155
Georgetown, MD. USA
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TBOT422
Posts: 424
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:36 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by TBOT422 »

I suppose it all depends on how you use your boat. When we are cruising, we rarely are in the cabin. We tend to be warm weather sailors, and during the warmer months, the sun is up until late in the evening, so the cabin lights are rarely turned on. After dark, we tend to sit in the cockpit or at the bow and enjoy the stars and moon. We don't often spend more than a day or two at any one anchorage. Getting into and out of an anchorage typically means the engine is running at 1-2 hours/day nearly replacing all of the power consumed. If we happen to stay at anchor for 2-3 days, the little Honda 2000 can re-charge the batteries. With about 700 amp-hours of house battery capacity plus a dedicated starting battery this seems to work for us. So, for us, replacing the cabin lights for a small power consumption gain is pretty low on the priority list.

However, a good point was made by AnnB about the anchor light. Due to the amount of time it is on, it is certainly a candidate for improvement. Does anyone have a link as to the bulb used to replace it? It would be handy to have the right bulb in my pocket BEFORE I go up the mast.

Thanks
Gary & Janet
The Best of Times (Hull #422)
leigh weiss
Posts: 208
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:32 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by leigh weiss »

I used #1156 LED bulb replacement found on Amazon. My boat has a Charleston Spar with Hella Marine Lighting fixtures.
I changed the foredeck and steaming light on the same trip up the mast.
The steaming and stern light uses a Festoon Bulb found also on Amazon.
You do not need to buy expensive CANBUS LED bulbs or use a load resister, our boats' electrical system in not that sophisticated.

Leigh and Donna Brisa #155
Leigh and Donna Weiss
Brisa #155
Georgetown, MD. USA
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william vanwagoner
Posts: 112
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:59 pm
Location: Destiny #229 Long Beach CA

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by william vanwagoner »

I am in the process of converting my interior lights to LEDs and noticed that the chromed plastic (?) fixtures are a bit tarnished and pitted. Any ideas on how to clean/polish these? Also, has anyone replaced the lousey small toggle switches on the dome lights and if so, what did you use.

Thanks,
Bill VanWagoner, #229
Bill VanWagoner
Destiny #229
leigh weiss
Posts: 208
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:32 pm

Re: Replacing interior light bulbs

Post by leigh weiss »

Bill,
I have used white polishing compound to clean both the light fixtures and the door locks sets.
I found the small replacement switches at Radio Shack .
Use a small (30 watt or smaller ) soldering iron.
Have fun.



Leigh Weiss Brisa #155
Upper Chesapeake Bay
Leigh and Donna Weiss
Brisa #155
Georgetown, MD. USA
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