Seeing the Light

A while back I changed most of Albert's bus bulbs and a couple of halogen downlights for for energy saving LEDs . They worked well and significantly cut the overnight current draw and decreased the morning voltage drop on the domestic battery bank. Our main cabin lights were square fluorescent lamps based on 2D tubes with brass surrounds. They provided a good bright light but they were the main current draw on the lighting circuit. As a result I have been looking for a way to replace them. I eventually found a method using a flat circular 21 LED Array supplied by Bedazzled.  I went for their warm white option.

A G4-21L Array

The arrays are not cheap but the current draw is low (I measured around 1 amp for all five lights) and their light is certainly more even, the 2D tubes with their built-in inverter cause a shadow in the centre of the fitting.

Before - 2D fluorescent tube

After- Energy saving LED array

To carry out the conversion I had to dump the original innards of the lights and place the array in the centre of the plastic housing. I managed quite a neat installation using two self-tapping screws to hold the array in place and a handy lump of Blue-Tack acting as a spacer to protect the components on the underside of the circuit board. The units run cooler. The old fluorescent units generated quite a bit of heat, presumably because of the inverter installed in each unit.  One of the old units had also developed an annoying fault - going off randomly and then coming on again a few minutes later. I hope the LEDs are reliable.