Cold-Cathode Fluorescent wall lamp

CWM

CWM

Chuck
FYI:

I just installed a LuNaSea "Titan UltraThin Super Bright CCFL Fluorescent w/ Built-in Dimmer" wall lamp as a replacement for the factory lamp on the port side in the main salon in my 1973 E27.
URL: http://www.lunasealighting.com/StoreBox/0000001/ll04.htm

Note that it has a dimmer and that it uses about 9 watts max.

Its maximum "setting" is quite bright, and without the dimmer feature, it may be too much for an E27.
I can read a book while seated on the port seatee without any problems.

The minimum "setting" is ideal for a soft light setting.

Price per the above URL is $50.
 
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Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Cold Cathode notes

FWIW, a friend home-built several cold cathode lights using the tubes from the screen lighting of parted-out laptop computers. He put the circuit board inside a teak bezel with routed-out recesses for two of the tubes. Switchable for one or both tubes, they put out a lot of light with low amp draw.
Sometimes... technology is useful!

Loren
 
CWM

CWM

Chuck
>> Do these lights have that subtle "flicker" that some flourescent lights have?

No
 
TRMN8R

TRMN8R

Member II
Interesting; a year ago I looked into replacing all the incandescents in my home with CFL's which would have had a very high acquisition cost until I spoke with my best friend who replaced some in his and was not happy with the switch. Seems that the wattage ratings have to be looked at very carefully to get the same amount of light, and the other prob was the color tempurature which is different than CFL's, etc. Over the summer, I thought that this would be a useful thing to do in my e27 since the space is considerably smaller and well, anything to minimize the draw on the BB makes sense. So, my only question is this, are you satisfied with the color tempurature of the light? $50 huh? That's steep, me thinks!
 
CWM

CWM

Chuck
TRMN8R:

I just turned one of the 9w CCFL wall lamps on to experience it.
The light is white (colder) compared to the more yellow (warmer) light of one of the 18w incandescent lamps (the one over the galley sink) on the boat.

My subjective experience is that the CCFL lamp provides more luminosity at a greater distance than the incandescent lamp does.

Also, I have two CCFL lamps installed on my 1973 E27, each as a replacement for the factory install wall lamps in the main salon (one on the port side, one on the starboard side). I would not want more CCFL lamps installed, as they provide plenty of light and the lamps are expensive.

In my opinion having two CCFL lamps installed on my E27 is worth the cost.
I have no complants.

A photo of the CCFL on the port side is attached.
 

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Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
questions and lumens

Keep in mind that in lighting, one needs to compare like with like.
Compact Fluorescent Lighting = CFL. THis is different than Light Emitting Diode = LED. Perhaps someone can explain where Cold Cathode is on the technology scale...
:nerd:

My experience with the transplanted-CC-laptop-computer-backlight scheme is that it is quite intense and draws less portions of an amp than nearby incandescent bulbs.

As to flickering, we have been using a twin tube Thinlight fixture over the galley for about a decade with no flickering at all. It works great. I would admit, tho, that the illuminatin is not as "warm" as the light from the rest of the incandescent bulbed fixtures.

Loren
 
TRMN8R

TRMN8R

Member II
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-cold-cathode-light.htm

Well, here you go. I believe this to be a very useful thread since we're all looking for more efficient ways to conserve energy, aka, less current draw on the BB. BTW, LED's are very efficient and are brighter as the technology progresses, but pretty useless in anything other than 'marker type' lighting which is an excellent application for such. In my business world, I saw the prototype of an LED PJ in Denver which had a pretty impressive light output (for 3 LED's) and is most certainly the 'greenest' technology.
 
TRMN8R

TRMN8R

Member II
Depends upon the use. That has 30 lumens vs roughly tens times that in a 40W incandescent. If you were to use that just to 'mark' a path, night light, etc, it would be fine, but to see or read by, not a good choice. Even in the small space of a cabin, you'd need a lot more lumens. Other good uses for LED in marine:

http://www.defender.com/category.jsp?path=-1|65136|739053&id=760449

as an example. Very high acquisition costs, but long life, and what you're paying for is the higher visibility ranges required for NAV aps, etc.
 
R

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
I would very strongly disagree with the statement that LED's are only good for marker and nav lighting. Check out the Sensibulb's from www.sailorssolutions.com I have replaced 10 or so of the incandescent bulbs in the most-used fixtures on my boat with these. The light output is the same or brighter. You can indeed read by them and the light is quite warm in color. My wife didn't even realize that I had changed them over. At $40 a shot its not too bad and the little bayonet socket adapters work great. RT
 
TRMN8R

TRMN8R

Member II
Certainly glad you found a solution that works for you. I'm unaware of all the LED solutions out there, but instead, those that I'm familier with.
 
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