12V led vs incandescent

[Brooksie]

Some good offerings on their site. Thanks!

RV & Marine LED Lights | Distributor | 12V LED | Blackhawk LED
Lights

Used the same conversion "boards" $5 ea on ebay about 5 years ago, very happy with them and no problems w/ burnouts. Burnouts can be a problem with LED's unless they are designed for 14+ volts or have a DC-DC chip included in them to keep constant 12V.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Does anybody know about LED replacement for a Jabsco 135SL search light? Never found one.

 

[psneeld]

No need to worry too much about nav light bulb replacement, most nav lights don't strictly meet the requirements anyway.

While I was active duty, for 10 years I tried to get some response to the issue, finally after about 15 years, the USCG put out a navigation circular stating that most installs and fixtures aren't compliant and the operator is accountable....

Beauracratic nonsense.....

Any decent expert witness can explain why it's BS, looking at the issue wither way.

 

[Cottontop]

Greetings,
Mr. Sea... "...the whole assembly with a USCG led assembly it was fine." That was something along the lines of what I vaguely remember. Just the LED alone did not comply with USCG regulations if installed in an existing socket. As I said, the law may have changed...

I am NOT questioning the effectiveness/performance of an LED, just mentioning what I perceive the law to be. I really don't think the USCG is going to board and inspect your nav' lights but...

The USCG has issued some guidance about this (probably what psneeld is referring to, above):

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg545/alerts/1015.pdf

 

[psneeld]

[STRIKE][/STRIKE]

The USCG has issued some guidance about this (probably what psneeld is referring to, above):

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg545/alerts/1015.pdf

Actually I am referring to the fact many USCG approved nav lights actually don't meet Colregs either by design or poor install.

The large Hella or aqua signal (series 40) side lighrs actually can be seen from behind the vessel if not fitted with screens.

The plastic lenses on these bright lights illuminate brightly and stick out past their back...so a relatively bright glow shows astern, peceived as a nav light is in gross violation of the colregs.

So bad that my last boss had me make screens for all the assistance tow boats.

So the fact an LED may have a larger sector because it's wider than a single element is almost a joke to worry about considering the issues with certified lights.

As I said...a good expert witness......

 

[Xsbank]

I've found that many anchorages up here, boats don't bother to turn on an anchor light at all, saving lots of power. Not just Canadian boats either.

The cheap Chinese bulbs don't have the ability to absorb changes in voltage but they are, well, cheap. I find I get a season out of the ones I use often and just toss em as they are so cheap. The $30 boat shop bulbs burn out capriciously too but I think the cheap ones are worth it if they only cost a buck. All my fixtures used to house halogen and now they are not covered so they are a second to change bulbs.

 

[Carolena]

We are also among those who have switched over to LED. First on our sailboat, then the trawler, and now at home. For the boats, the energy difference is amazing. We now leave lights on all the time without a second thought. One additional benefit not yet mentioned is the reduction in heat. The halogen bulbs we had in our ceiling fixtures were extremely hot. I've even seen fixtures that were almost burnt on other boats. We no longer have to worry about that and also have less heat to contend with on hot summer nights.

 

[Pgitug]

Current is 10 to 1. With LED your fixtures last forever because there's no heat. Even using red night lights.
Go to superbrrightleds.com
I replaced every light on my 37 Nordic Tug last year without a single failure. Double check both dimensions and plug configuration before ordering.
Order COOL WHITE for engine room spaces and WARM WHITE for all living spaces.

My Living Space

My Engine Room With Cool LED lighting.

 

[Moonstruck]

@Gonefarrell: I will investigate the K figures. Something new to digest.

@Hollywood: Time to look at new tricks!

Thanks all

Around 3000K is the warm light spectrum. Higher than that is brighter, and tends to have a blue cast.

 

[MVDarlin]

Depends on your battery bank and use. But amperage used is much lower. May be only 5%

 

[Andy G]

Current is 10 to 1. With LED your fixtures last forever because there's no heat. Even using red night lights.
Go to superbrrightleds.com
I replaced every light on my 37 Nordic Tug last year without a single failure. Double check both dimensions and plug configuration before ordering.
Order COOL WHITE for engine room spaces and WARM WHITE for all living spaces.
View attachment 58640
My Living Space
View attachment 58641
My Engine Room With Cool LED lighting.

A very nice boat you have there

 

[Bay Pelican]

There are very few "win-win's" in day to day life where everyone comes out ahead. LED lights are one. We conserve energy in a very painless way. No sacrifice. We save money. We save the time and effort of changing so many burned out bulbs.

An LED masthead light is a blessing if for no other reason that it will probably need to be changed sometime during the next owner's watch, not mine.

Also the LED navigation lights are sealed, water does not enter and thus greatly reduced corrosion.

 

[rwidman]

I converted my boat lights to LED and the wife forced me to return them to incandescent the LEDs were too white and not suited to the boat so she said

You didn't pay attention to the color temperature of the LEDs you installed. Warm white LEDs would have been fine.

There's a lot of good information on LED lighting on the Internet. Look it up.

 

[Moonstruck]

My anchor light 40W bulb was replaced with a DrLed bulb of about 1 1/2 W. They claim the USCG has certified their Aqua Signal replacement bulb for 2 mile visibility. I didn't replace running lights as the engines are usually making alternator power when they are on. All other fixtures on the boat have been converted. No fixtures replaced as replacement bulbs were found for all. It was a great upgrade. I have also done the conversion in our travel trailer.

With over 60 bulbs replaced there was only 1 bulb failure. SuperbriteLeds.com sent a replacement with no questions asked.

Best to get the bulbs with a buck circuit on board, or put a buck circuit converter before the first bulb in the circuit.

 

[Pgitug]

A very nice boat you have there

Thanks. My wife remodeled the interior.
She has good taste IMHO

 

[dhays]

Ohh, I see a big discussion coming. Every navigation light on my sailboat, including anchor and steaming lights were LEDs. Even the for-deck floods. When I take possession of my Trawler next week I will start converting every light possible to LED. One BAY15D incandescent bulb consumes 25 watts, the same illumination from LEDs (Dr. LED SMD LED Replacement Bulb from Defender) consumes .2 watts. It's a no brainer.

The only incandescent light left on my sailboat is one little gooseneck spot at the nav table. I coudln't find an LED replacement for it but it is a light that is hardly ever used. Anchor light, steaming light, deck lights, nav lights, and all interior lights I switched to LED. I have never looked back. Definitely a good upgrade to a boat.

 

[FlyWright]

The only incandescent light left on my sailboat is one little gooseneck spot at the nav table. I coudln't find an LED replacement for it but it is a light that is hardly ever used.

I just noticed the comments on this bulb that mentions that very thing..."gooseneck light at a nav station". I know you don't own the boat anymore, but was it like this?

https://store.marinebeam.com/green-6-led-miniature-ba9s-replacement-ba-9s-06-grn/

 

[BruceK]

You didn't pay attention to the color temperature of the LEDs you installed. Warm white LEDs would have been fine.

There's a lot of good information on LED lighting on the Internet. Look it up.

Tut Tut Gaston. You`ve been told, now off to the naughty corner for you.:lol:

 

[rwidman]

Tut Tut Gaston. You`ve been told, now off to the naughty corner for you.:lol:

There's far more to it than buying some generic LED lamps off eBay. There is, of course the color. Without knowing this ahead of time, LEDs are manufactured in many different shades of "white". Not so incandescent lamps.

There is also the means of current limiting and this is why some folks report short life with LEDs.

As I posted, all this information is easily available on the Internet.

You wouldn't just walk into a store and ask for a can of bottom paint, you would research what is best for your conditions. LED replacement lamps are the same.

 

[BandB]

LEDs are manufactured in many different shades of "white". Not so incandescent lamps.

.

Actually so are incandescent bulbs. They're just not as clearly indicated but use words to describe them instead, different words from different manufacturers. Words like "clear" or "frosted" and then special ones like GE's Reveal which tend toward a blue shade. Plus out of the same wattage you'll find many different lumens, some sizable differences. On a 60 watt, you might have 420 lumens or 640 or any number between.

 

[twistedtree]

Regarding Dr LED bulbs and USCG certification, there is some weasel wording in their press release. Here is the text.

Seattle, Washington, 25th February 2010 – Dr. LED today announced that it’s White Polar Star 40TM, Red Polar Star 40TM, and Green Polar Star 40TM after-market replacement LED light bulbs for the Aqua Signal series 40 navigation lights have been certified by a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) accepted independent laboratory as compliant with the USCG COLREG 1972 (International Maritime Organization, “IMO”) standards and verified to be in conformance with the navigation light regulations of ABYC A-16. These are the only after-market navigation replacement light bulbs that have received such certifications.

What it says is that a test lab certified the bulb, not that it is USCG certified. This would be like having a lab test for UL compliance, but not actually getting a UL certification. It may just be a technicality, or it might be significant. I don't know.

Regardless, it wouldn't stop me from using LED replacement bulbs, at least as an interim measure. In fact, that's exactly what I've done. I got an LED anchor light fixture from the start. As others have noted, the power savings is huge since the light stays on for many house. Then I had to replace my steaming light so switched to an LED fixture. Then a side light burned out and I replaced the bulb with an LED bulb. Now I have LED fixtures for the remaining nav lights and will be installing them shortly.

 

[sunchaser]

Well, for us LED swap outs are done as needed, which isn't often. One expensive place I would go LED are the ever increasing in popularity "headlights" to be used for night travel in log infested and crab pot areas. Gosh they're great.

We've no shortage of battery capacity and have found current draws from lights are less than 10% of at anchor amp draw. A huge power savings we've found - while at anchor we shut off our inverter and run 12V only stuff when sleeping or reading.

With about 10 years of spare bulbs on board and no shortage of replacements looming, my boat change fun things to do lie elsewhere. Call it an alternative or retro lifestyle.

 

[tpbrady]

I have converted almost all my bulbs over to LED except running lights at this point. For some reason Nordic Tugs in my model used 4 different types of bulbs with a total of 76 bulbs required for all interior and engine rooms lights. I don't have that many in my house. I have found suitable LED replacements for all styles except the festoon bulbs in the overhead lights. The ones I have found are either not bright enough even though there are two bulbs per fixture, or overheat and start falling apart. I need about 36 of them if I put two to a fixture. I almost to the point of wiring in a single BA15 socket in each fixture as I have found a very good replacement for them on Amazon. Does anyone know of a good festoon LED bulb that won't break the bank when buying a lot of them?

Tom

 

[dhays]

I just noticed the comments on this bulb that mentions that very thing..."gooseneck light at a nav station". I know you don't own the boat anymore, but was it like this?

https://store.marinebeam.com/green-6-led-miniature-ba9s-replacement-ba-9s-06-grn/

That might fit based on my memory, but then my memory is truly bad.

 

[AusCan]

I just noticed the comments on this bulb that mentions that very thing..."gooseneck light at a nav station". I know you don't own the boat anymore, but was it like this?

https://store.marinebeam.com/green-6-led-miniature-ba9s-replacement-ba-9s-06-grn/

SNAP!

My nav station gooseneck light still needs changing out as well, and that is a match.

Thanks Al.

 

[kev_rm]

I think they are typically about a 5yr payback on energy... but depending on how you value your time... maybe only one year

as noted previously, pay attention to feedback/reviews on specific models. plenty of them have weird color temperatures, blow up if you reverse polarity, are just too bright, melt stuff, etc.

On another note, does anyone use outdoor strip or flood type lighting they have found that survives the marine environment?

 

[Bustlebomb]

Tpbrady,

Can you share the link for your Amazon selection?

 

[CMS]

One caution...

We replaced some saloon, pilothouse, and stateroom reading lights with LEDs that were supposed to give equivalent light as the replaced incandescents but at significant power savings.


But the lighting is significantly dimmer than before, to the point where I may have to redo the bulbs again.

LED bulbs need a constant current driver source as well as RFI filtering. Many of the eBay grade 12V LED's out there are of horrible quality and are basically pure snake oil.

When buying LED bulbs they must need t be specified as 10V-30V or they are not a constant current driver and they will quickly age and not last.

Some real cheap LED's can even catch fire and/or literally melt the PCB solder and have hot emitters literally fall out and burn through upholstery. I have seen this happen on numerous boats now where owners have sources LED's from eBay and other disreputable sources. All LED's are not created equal.

Perhaps the most reputable one-stop source for marine LED's is Marine Beam. Jeff the owner not only sells his own brand but is the main designer, manufacturer, importer and supplier for many of the big name marine lighting companies who re-brand his products.

We have been using LED bulbs on-board since the first SCAD Sensi-Bulb launched back in the early 2000's. The changes in LED technology since then have been dramatic but the snake-oil suppliers still exist. It is still a caveat emptor game with LED's..

 

[what_barnacles]

Actually so are incandescent bulbs. They're just not as clearly indicated but use words to describe them instead, different words from different manufacturers. Words like "clear" or "frosted" and then special ones like GE's Reveal which tend toward a blue shade. Plus out of the same wattage you'll find many different lumens, some sizable differences. On a 60 watt, you might have 420 lumens or 640 or any number between.

right, soft white (2700K – 3000K), Bright White/Cool White (3500K – 4100K), and Daylight (5000K – 6500K) are 3 color representations that spread as far as the LEDs.

 

[Nightsky]

Today I replaced 13 G4 halogen bulbs with LED's. The G4;s combined drew 12.8 amps, the LED's draw 1.5 amps combined. I have 7 incandescent (1142's) to replace as soon as the LED's arrive. I've already replaced the anchor light to LED but will leave the side and mast lights as is since they will only be on while steaming with alternators keeping the batteries charged up. Not sure what this will equate to as far as time on the anchor between battery charges.