New lights and old friends

Thursday, 29 January 2009 19:29

When we were down in Banbury, we popped up to see Richard from Bedazzled. We were seriously thinking about changing our lights from halogen to LEDs. This was prompted by our electrical problems and the new battery monitor showing the amount of electricity the halogen bulbs used.

Matt, the engineer at Tooley's, recommended Richard and Bedazzled, as he was very pleased with his LEDs. Richard is an experienced and accomplished electrical engineer and markets LED lights specifically for boats.

Having seen boats at shows with LED lighting I was not convinced that I liked the light they gave or that they gave enough light. Epiphany has portholes so when we speced her we made sure that we would have good lighting throughout. I was yet to be convinced that LEDs would do the job, particularly as I need good light to read in.

After speaking at length to Richard and listening to his explanations we decided to give them a trial run! We bought 6 of the warm-white 9-LED bulbs. All of the bulbs come supplied with an automatic resetting fuse to prevent short circuits and a transient suppressor to prevent electrical spikes blowing the bulbs. (Much better than other ones on the market - they often fail due to this).

John fitted them in the saloon (5 lights). I was not convinced that there was enough light to read for a prolonged length of time. However, we could put all the lights on to help this and not use nearly as much power! We decided that we would try some more as we could always mix them with halogen to give a better light.

The eleven Richard supplied next were lights with 16 LEDs, as the 9s had been discontinued. My, what a difference! As soon as John fitted some in the saloon, I realised that I could adjust to the different effect and that there was ample light to read by!

Whilst we have been here, John had installed the rest and we are much happier with the effect, amount of light and drop in power consumption! So much so that we will probably finish the job and order the final bulbs! We now have LEDs in the saloon, kitchen, part of the bathroom and over the back bunks. We can have them all on, which uses the same power as approximately 2 of the halogen bulbs!

Enough technical stuff from a layperson's point of view!!! Who were our "old friends"? Not old in age, I hasten to add! We last saw them on the Kennet and Avon in 2007. They are fellow bloggers, so we keep track of them and knew they were near Rugby. We also knew that they might be moving today.

Derek and Dot on Gypsy Rover this morning

As they drew level, we invited them in for a coffee. Moored abreast of us, they came aboard! We had a great time, with all the usual boaters natter! Hope to see you both soon, maybe on the Ashby! Thanks for all the tips about moorings!

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