Flouro or LED camp light??

Vince.
Couldn't agree more with your comments.
I also installed flexiable LEDs into our camper.Now wife wants to stay up all night & read!!! Bad move on my behalf.

Regards.
Vince

>The LED are the rechargable type.

How do you get the light back into them? :)

Mike - you have to get the correct LEADs (Light Emitting & Absorbing Diode)

Oops that should be Signman

Hi Greg-
Thanks for that lead. Either of those look great!! Off to Bunnings 2moro morning......

Signman,

The Tuco light I made was the Arlec (WL17) work light (the black and yellow one).
I have picked up a couple of ideas from that site. I also made the camper leveller out of some scrap timber and old 4" brass hinges that I had laying around.

Have fun at Bunnings. I know I do, but my wife and credit card don't.

Greg

Hi guys,
I did the same thing with the Arlec work light, dearest part was the 12 volt spiral fluro globe at $36 (only $10 for the work light) Remember to get ES lamp holder on the work light as the 12 v lamps are ES only. Works very well, I made 2, one for the kitchen and other for dining or in the camper as the need arises.

G'day Greg & Shane
I got the Arlec work light (with the screw type globe holder).
Also, a 12v screw type globe. Now the screw base of the globe is heaps smaller than the 'holder' in the light unit?? Any clues??

Signman, Bunnings have the Nelson brand 12v compact fluoro globes, but at $30-odd a pop, they're rather expensive...

Ebay seller " sumotoz " sells solar gear, & he also has (cheap Chinese no-name) 11 & 13w 12v C/F globes (both ES & bayonet cap) at around $6 - $7 ea.
I bought a few of these, & they seem to be quite OK..

Another alternative, if ya have a good supply of globes with the smaller Edison Screw (there are a few different sizes), would be one of these adaptors as pictured here .. (I'm guessing that the BR3304 or 3307 would be applicable in this case.. these ones are in the good ol' U.S. of A;-))...

G'day Sandman,
Just going over these old post's and was looking for reference to lights and insects and found what you said .
Could you enlighten me as to what size or how many Led's are you to. Didn't actually mean to say that pun. :>))
I am looking at the lantern type that are around now, but some are just bluddy woeful with the light output. Spinifex put out a 24 Led model which is rechargable 240 and 12 plus dynamo winding to boot.
My missus pricked her ears up when I mentioned "no bugs" with Led's. Win some points there. :>))
Have you tried the Led without the fluro on? Any insects then ?
I have a fluro now, but want a back-up light.
Ave a good 1

G'day Harry,

The LED light that I have is labelled 8000MCD LED - SUPER BRIGHT 12v LED Worklight.
Part No LED060
2.4W
Has 20 rows of 3 LED's = 60 alltogether.

Cheers

What's the verdict on the insects bit ?

The reason I use the LED lamp is because it doesn't attract insects to any noticeable degree.

I use the LED lamp at the cooking area end of the camper annex and a Versalite fluro at the other end. There is no doubt the fluro gives off better light but the LED is sufficient for cooking purposes.

There is an extremely noticable difference of the amount of insects around the fluro compared with the occasional moth around the LED.

Even the gas lantern I previously used attracted multiple insects.

That's great to hear, Ive picked up a lantern type "CREE X Lamp" from Rays and it is very bright and guess what, only 1 LED.
CREE are a leading manufacturer of electronic bits.
Reflector design says it all.
60hrs on high
240hrs on low
150 hrs flashing
Takes 3 D size.
No where near as bright as 60 leds, but it will be ok for cooking or as a back up light.
Thanks for info, well worth reading.

What's the relationship between " LEDs don't put out radio interference" ... it's a camping light..
Why would one want a camp light & a radio on at the same time??

>Why would one want a camp light & a radio on at the same time??

Amateur Radio. My transceiver is frequently monitoring the HF bands when I'm in camp and 40m of wire makes a good antenna for local noise. To be fair I haven't found any issues with my Jaycar CFL but that probably means it's harmonics are above HF.

Gerry: I did exactly the same about 4 years ago with the Jaycar lamp, only issue I had was the lamp holder shook itself apart during travel, I now pack a piece of foam to hold the lamp in place. I also have some aluminum foil covering half of the container to act as a reflector.

One thing I've (I think?) noticed is that in cold weather, below about 7C, the light output from the CFL seems to drop quite a bit, because our eyes respond in a non-linear way to light it's hard to be certain but I certainly don't notice the same issue with my duel fuel lamp.

Mike Harding

Mike,
Who's out camping when it's 7deg? LOL!
Gerry

7C = Positively warm! :)

Spent a week in -5C in the High Country two years ago and I'm damn sure the CFL output was well down at that temp.

Mike Harding

Fluro lamps don't perform well in low temperatures, as you start to approach freezing their output drops significantly. This is why there is currently a big push to replace commercial fridge lighting with LEDs.

It's a little bit difficult to say which system is better for lighting in the bush. Good quality high end LEDs will have a higher efficiency than even standard fluro tubes and definitely more than CFLs however unless you really know your LEDs and then know the specifics of the device used in that particular product (which you won't) then it's very hard to tell. If they are the small clear plastic dome type LEDs (through hole) then they will probably have a lower output than a CFL. If they are nice expensive surface mount types than they _may_ have higher a efficiency than a CFL. Sadly at this point there is no way to tell and even if the manufacturer says "100 lm/w!!!!" on the box then there is a fair chance they are lying either intentionally or not.

At this point in time I would still buy CFL lighting for the bush unless I had an opportunity to test the LED lamp against a CFL. Give it another 12-24 months and I'd buy LED.

(LED torchses otoh are brilliant!)


Cheers

Andrew

Or torches even.