Half Fast
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I decided to do as much LED swapping as I could on my 270 - and started the typical research online.
There were a number of threads that were very helpful here, but most pointed to LED sources that frankly seemed incredibly overpriced for what they were selling. It seems like you take a china part and list it on a website that says something about marine and all of a sudden it is 10 times the price it should be.
Here is what I settled on and the prices I paid:
Cockpit Lights:
I have two Perko cockpit lights that uses 42mm (1.72") festoon bulbs. I wanted a change of color here. I saw a mod posted here where someone hotglued a G4 socket into the Perko housing and put in a white/red color changing LED disc - that seemed like a lot of work and was still a decent amout of money in parts. I also saw a lot of people replacing the whole unit with one of those $90 red/blue/dimmable white units. Then I stumbled across someone who simply replaced their festoon with a colored festoon bulb form superbrightleds. This sounded like a nice inexpensive route but superbright wants $15!! for the bulb, and it only has 6 5050SMDs on the board. That seemed pricey to me too. Here is what I ordered:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IWHZPQ2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It has 12 5050 SMDs, fits perfectly in the existing Perko unit, and 4 of them are $6.99 on amazon, Prime eligible. $1.75 a bulb - that's more like it.
Interior Spotlights:
I have the 12v spots with G4 bulbs in them. I saw a number of suggested replacements for these as well, from backpinned discs to rectangular boards, etc. Again, prices were all over the place, but averaged somewhere around $10 a bulb! Good grief charley brown.
I ended up using these. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8C12A8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They are 1.5 watts and are supposed to be equivalent light output to a 10W standard bulb and I would say that is fairly accurate. The warm white is somewhere between white and warm white. They are encased in a bulb-shaped silica gel housing, making the board itself about as weatherproof s you can get - and are $11.99 for 6 w/ Prime shipping. $1.99 a bulb. One of the 6 was defective and only put out about half the light of the others... which are all going strong. I really like the design of these bulbs.
Interior BA15S replacements:
The overhead light in the bathroom has two BA15S bulbs, and the overhead in the cabin area over the "hallway" to the aft cabin had a single BA15S. Again I saw a number of different options for this, some all-in-one led bulbs, etc. - and again all seemed too pricey (well, for me anyway). Here is what I ordered:
3 BA15S to G4 socket adapters. I got them for $.98 each from here: https://www.wiredco.com/Bayonet_socket_adapter_for_LED_G4_Pins_p/baysktadapt1.htm. Since I liked the design of the other G4 bulbs I ordered - I ordered the same style but the 3watt version, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8BTCV0/ref=ox_ya_os_product_refresh_T1 which has double the LEDs and is supposed to be the equivalent of a 20W and I would say it is. The warm white is not nearly as warm as the 1.5 watt version. I am not sure why that is as it appears to use mostly the exact same components. It is closer to a pure white. It is not blueish in any way. They are $11.99 for 4. $4 a bulb including the $.99 socket adapter.
Random bling upgrade:
The circular light over the galley has two bulbs, a 110v and a 12v. The 12v is a g4 socket, and there are so many other lights available in the cabin, I thought it would be neat to turn this into a dual purpose light fixture. I kept the existing white bulb for 110v, but replaced the 12v g4 with a colorchanging disc. Now one switch is white and the other is partytime. The disc was a whopping $9.99, from the same place I ordered the socket adapters. https://www.wiredco.com/9_LED_SMT_SMD_RGB_Color_G4_Disc_LED_Module_12VAC_p/ledrgb12v2.htm
I spent a total of $43.90 (plus $6.95 for shipping from the one vendor, Amazon stuff shipped free) to upgrade almost every light on the boat excluding nav lights, and I have a few bulbs left over.
Hope this gives people some alternate ideas - happy boating!
I decided to do as much LED swapping as I could on my 270 - and started the typical research online.
There were a number of threads that were very helpful here, but most pointed to LED sources that frankly seemed incredibly overpriced for what they were selling. It seems like you take a china part and list it on a website that says something about marine and all of a sudden it is 10 times the price it should be.
Here is what I settled on and the prices I paid:
Cockpit Lights:
I have two Perko cockpit lights that uses 42mm (1.72") festoon bulbs. I wanted a change of color here. I saw a mod posted here where someone hotglued a G4 socket into the Perko housing and put in a white/red color changing LED disc - that seemed like a lot of work and was still a decent amout of money in parts. I also saw a lot of people replacing the whole unit with one of those $90 red/blue/dimmable white units. Then I stumbled across someone who simply replaced their festoon with a colored festoon bulb form superbrightleds. This sounded like a nice inexpensive route but superbright wants $15!! for the bulb, and it only has 6 5050SMDs on the board. That seemed pricey to me too. Here is what I ordered:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IWHZPQ2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It has 12 5050 SMDs, fits perfectly in the existing Perko unit, and 4 of them are $6.99 on amazon, Prime eligible. $1.75 a bulb - that's more like it.
Interior Spotlights:
I have the 12v spots with G4 bulbs in them. I saw a number of suggested replacements for these as well, from backpinned discs to rectangular boards, etc. Again, prices were all over the place, but averaged somewhere around $10 a bulb! Good grief charley brown.
I ended up using these. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8C12A8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They are 1.5 watts and are supposed to be equivalent light output to a 10W standard bulb and I would say that is fairly accurate. The warm white is somewhere between white and warm white. They are encased in a bulb-shaped silica gel housing, making the board itself about as weatherproof s you can get - and are $11.99 for 6 w/ Prime shipping. $1.99 a bulb. One of the 6 was defective and only put out about half the light of the others... which are all going strong. I really like the design of these bulbs.
Interior BA15S replacements:
The overhead light in the bathroom has two BA15S bulbs, and the overhead in the cabin area over the "hallway" to the aft cabin had a single BA15S. Again I saw a number of different options for this, some all-in-one led bulbs, etc. - and again all seemed too pricey (well, for me anyway). Here is what I ordered:
3 BA15S to G4 socket adapters. I got them for $.98 each from here: https://www.wiredco.com/Bayonet_socket_adapter_for_LED_G4_Pins_p/baysktadapt1.htm. Since I liked the design of the other G4 bulbs I ordered - I ordered the same style but the 3watt version, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8BTCV0/ref=ox_ya_os_product_refresh_T1 which has double the LEDs and is supposed to be the equivalent of a 20W and I would say it is. The warm white is not nearly as warm as the 1.5 watt version. I am not sure why that is as it appears to use mostly the exact same components. It is closer to a pure white. It is not blueish in any way. They are $11.99 for 4. $4 a bulb including the $.99 socket adapter.
Random bling upgrade:
The circular light over the galley has two bulbs, a 110v and a 12v. The 12v is a g4 socket, and there are so many other lights available in the cabin, I thought it would be neat to turn this into a dual purpose light fixture. I kept the existing white bulb for 110v, but replaced the 12v g4 with a colorchanging disc. Now one switch is white and the other is partytime. The disc was a whopping $9.99, from the same place I ordered the socket adapters. https://www.wiredco.com/9_LED_SMT_SMD_RGB_Color_G4_Disc_LED_Module_12VAC_p/ledrgb12v2.htm
I spent a total of $43.90 (plus $6.95 for shipping from the one vendor, Amazon stuff shipped free) to upgrade almost every light on the boat excluding nav lights, and I have a few bulbs left over.
Hope this gives people some alternate ideas - happy boating!
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China is not even ON the list. And it is not because of western popular brands. It is just they do know what goes on.