LED Cabin Lights

[DCMY #92]

The original headliner in Loose Change was made of Nautilex stapled directly to the overhead beams. We have modified this by installing thin plywood attached to the beams that will be covered with foam and Nautilex. The change was made so we can install recessed can lights in the cabin. I hope to use LED lights to avoid the heat and current draw of halogens. I have reviewed the other LED light threads and got allot of useful information, but I still have a few specific questions.

We got several sample LED lights from DRSA in various sizes and light colors. Some can be dimmed and some cannot. All are the same wattage (3 or 3.5 - I don't remember) The warm white samples are very bright, but as others have suggested the color is too harsh for the cabin. The single cool white sample is not very bright. It's too dim to be of any use for reading even directly under it. Is this a defective light, or are all cool white LEDs dimmer than warm white LEDs of the same wattage?

I see in the previous threads that others are happy with IMTRA LED lights, but specific style, model numbers, etc are not listed. I would be very interested in the brand, color, style/model of LED cabin lights others have used - and also those you would avoid. These things are too expensive to risk buying the wrong lights.

 

[REBrueckner]

The lights you add should be tied to your task. I added traditional brass fixture 12v lamps in my salon, along the outer curtain cover board, for reading since chairs would always be placed around the perimeter of the salon. One nice feature, was that the angle and direction of light could be adjusted via the swivel mount. For table lighting or other applications, you'll want to place lamps appropriately.

For approximately even lighting in a room, place lamps 1/2 the lamp separation for each wall...so in a 12 foot wide room, for example lamps might be these distances from either wall:2ft ,6ft, 10feet.