Baddie's bus bulbs impress me with their power saving

The tomboyishly named Baddie The Pirate is carving out a reputation for herself as a specialist supplier of LED lighting for boaters.  She lives aboard a narrowboat herself, currently on the top pound of the Leeds & Liverpool, and

Last week she sent me a free sample 'bus bulb' in LED format.   Bus bulbs are those low-voltage (12v) things with standard bayonet fittings but tiny little round bulbs, and I have several wall fittings on Granny Buttons that use them. 

In their decorative shades bus bulbs give out a very pleasant, soft light. The chief drawback with traditional bulbs is their considerable power consumption - typically 1.2 to 1.7 amps.

Baddie says her bus bulbs draw much less power, as you'd expect from LED.  OK, it was a free sample as I said, but the sample she sent does indeed deliver on the promise. 

Below is Granny's saloon tonight, with all wall lights ablaze (but I've not switched on the ugly fluorescent ceiling lights).

Baddie's LED bulb is on the wall fitting on the right.  It's certainly holding its own in terms of brightness. Replacing a 12v 24w bulb with Baddie's LED version reduced the power consumption for that fitting from 1.7 amps to only 0.2 amps.   The bulb claims to use even less - 0.13 amps - but my control unit is only able to measure to the nearest tenth of an amp.  Nevertheless, it's an impressive saving, and does what it says on the tin. 

You quickly feel where the power saving is coming from too:  There's almost no heat; you can change these bulbs with your bare fingers. 

I've got two other bus bulb fittings on my boat.   They are in the bedroom, above the headboard, and frankly these probably need Baddie's bulbs rather more. 

I'm prone to falling asleep while reading, and often wake up the next morning, the lights still burning  Overnight that could deplete my cabin batteries maybe 10%, which represents over an hour's charging by engine.

Most LEDs are noted for their cold, blue light.  While these new bulbs are marketed as warm white, they are definitely a little bit 'colder' than the cosy primrose of traditional bus bulbs - and even have a slight greenish tinge.  But I'd say they are also quite bearable in colour temperature. 

I'd prefer the slightly cosier, warmer glow of a traditional bulb, but not at five or eight times the power consumption. 

(I've reduced the exposure in the picture below, to highlight the difference in colour.  It's not as visible in the photos above as it is in real life, although you'd probably not notice anyway  if they were all the same type of bulb.)

The big drawback, of course, is the cost.  At £11.50 a time they are quite a commitment compared to the typical £4 for an incandescent version.  But if most of your battery charging is from running the engine when moored up, then you should get your money back soon enough in saved diesel.

Baddie claims the prices is competitive enough, but she also says that one advantage of getting LED lighting from her is that she's a boater herself and knows the problems you'll have and can advise accordingly.

I daresay that someone will quickly pop up and claim they can get LED bus bulbs better, cheaper, quicker, yellower, low powerer or whateverer.  But I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

Baddie's LED Bus Bulb page here. 

Update 9th April:

I forgot to mention something else very impressive with these bulbs - they are quite omni-directional - that is, they shine in all directions. 

LEDs by nature are very directional,  so tend to work best as spot lights or to create 'pools' of light.  Or at least the ones I've seen do. 

But Baddie's Bus Bulbs seem to shine in the round, or at least the one I've seen does.

Comments

[car led light]

LEDs by nature are very directional, so tend to work best as spot lights or to create 'pools' of light. Or at least the ones I've seen do.

[Baddie]

LEDs are directional in nature so any application that requires directional lighting such as spot-lighting and recessed lighting is a great candidate for LED lighting. For areas where you need light all round you can use a 360 deg LED bulb. This "solves" the directional light problem, however this is a “work around” for the directional nature of LEDs.
Baddie

[Brian]

I have used LED lighting on Harnser for several years now and in recent months have been looking at Baddies site, mainly because friends are interested in changing to LEDs and I would say her prices are very competitive, not cheap, but I have found that LED wise cheap is defiantly not best.
I just wish her Busbulbs had been on the market a year ago, it would have saved me changing lamp holders.