New cabin lights with ABI fixtures and Sensibulb LED bulbs

Lighting has been on my list of next projects for a while and I am finally tackling the challenge. My existing cabin lights are cheapo plastic RV fixtures that used a 20 or 25 watt incandescent bulb. I wanted to upgrade the appearance of the fixtures, improve the overall lighting in the cabin, and greatly reduce my electricity draw. I did all three!

With the help of some friendly folks on www.sailnet.com/forums/ I was turned onto some really nice ABI fixtures. ABI has gone out of business and so their light fixtures have been placed on sale various places. I bought mine from Defender for about $30 each, instead of $55 or so. They are a never tarnishing brass color that comes with xenon bulbs. They also have a real glass fresnel lens. They're a really nice looking fixture and readily accept G4 LED bulbs.

After doing the usual burst of research I decided to try out the Sensibulb LED bulb.

Well, the results are in and wow, am I happy. The fixtures are a huge upgrade in the appearance of the cabin, and even with their standard xenon bulbs they use one half the power of the old incandescent and put out more light. I only have one of the Sensibulb bulbs right now but it is amazing. I have it installed over the port settee and it is both super bright and a great color. The fixtures have two bulbs, and by replacing one with LED I can leave the other bulb with a red cover for night voyages.

I have ordered enough fixtures to replace all the old ones and will order enough of the Sensibulb for all the fixtures we use most often.  The Sensibulb uses about .2 amps, and the old incandescent used 2 amps. That's a 10X reduction in power usage! And they will last a lot longer. And the light is better...what could be better?

I don't have a picture but I also installed a new Hella articulating arm cabin light that uses a 10W Halogen. We needed a spot light over the galley as the cabin lights didn't get light down into the pots. Now, the new light provides excellent cooking light and when not in use tucks perfectly into the corner of the pilothouse in an otherwise unusable space.