Converting lighting to LED

[Porchhound]

I did a search for this topic but came back empty. Anyone have any experience with LED conversions or additions?

 

[Slowmo]

Are you converting cabin lighting? If so the simple approach is to just buy LED bulbs to fit your fixtures. However, I didn't get as much light as I wanted doing this so I rewired the fixtures to accept a couple of flat LED panels. You can also just buy LED fixtures which work well as well if they fit your space. For navigation lighting I purchased new LED fixtures.

 

[Comodave]

You can either replace the bulbs with LED bulbs or replace the whole fixture. I usually replace the fixture but that is my preference.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. P. As Mr. S said (post #2) "...the simple approach is to just buy LED bulbs to fit your fixtures..." The only "snag" may be your navigational lighting that must be USCC approved. A few years ago not all LED bulbs were acceptable. That may have changed. Just one thing to check and be sure of.


All of the interior cabin lighting on our boat were of the florescent tube variety. We purchased an LED roll and the appropriate end terminals, gutted the old ballasts and replaced with above mentioned LED strips cut to length from a 50' roll. Pretty simple IMO. For those areas that we felt needed brighter lighting, it was as easy as installing a second section of LED.


Example only:

Installation was peel and stick.

 

[wkearney99]

Do not buy cheap LEDs. Some are quite noisy, RF-wise, enough that the Coast Guard issued warnings about it. I bought most of mine from MarineBeam.com, but I think there's at least one other vendor that's favored by others here too.

Also know that if you have dimmers on the incandescents you will probably need to change them, as LEDs generally need 12vdc PWM dimming, unlike incandescents that used voltage.

 

[Iggy]

Just an fyi. You must look at the lumens and color of what you may need or what.

Lumens is the brightness output, the high the brighter. Color, from a blueish, to a yellow, tint to a bright white. Most people like a tint of yellow because its more like a 60 or 75 watt bulb.

 

[Bacchus]

Do not buy cheap LEDs. Some are quite noisy, RF-wise, enough that the Coast Guard issued warnings about it. I bought most of mine from MarineBeam.com, but I think there's at least one other vendor that's favored by others here too.

Also know that if you have dimmers on the incandescents you will probably need to change them, as LEDs generally need 12vdc PWM dimming, unlike incandescents that used voltage.

Agree
The other vendor I have had good luck with is SuperBrightLEDS
I started with cheap strip in fluorescent lights and had to replace them all after failures & flickering...mdo it once not twice.
Look for specs that have a DC range up to 30V.
The better LEDs have amperage control circuits to protect them from overload.
I didn't bother with Nav lights as if running at night engine alt is operating. I did replace the anchor light and had to go to a new head w LED to get USCG approved.
With LEDs polarity is important... if any don't lights reverse the + & -.

 

[jleonard]

I converted several old fixtures to LED via bulbs from Super Briight LEDs.
Also replaced the anchor light bulb. Didn't bother changing the running lights.

 

[AZ2Loop]

I've done interior cabin lights, exterior lighting, navigation lights, and anchor light. I've used both direct bulb replacements, fixture replacements, and some "hybrid" solutions where you gut the ballast on old florescent fixtures and replace with LEDs.



If you happen to have old school 12" florescent bulbs in your cabin, there is a really nice option of LED replacement bulbs. They are very well made and you simply cut out the ballast, splice in a new connection, and they are plug and play from there. Where your old florescent bulbs get their power (those end clips) are just used to hold the new LEDs in place. No power comes through those clips. The result is beautiful LED light, yet the visible part of the fixture is not disturbed. We love the results. My batter monitor has shows the LEDs use anywhere from about 10% to about 30% of the energy of the various bulbs we replaced, depending on what you are replacing. It is a great project to make your boat more enjoyable.

 

[wkearney99]

If you happen to have old school 12" florescent bulbs in your cabin, there is a really nice option of LED replacement bulbs. They are very well made and you simply cut out the ballast, splice in a new connection.

Yup, did some in my engine room. Easy to cut out the ballast from the circuit to provide power directly. Though, to be honest, I may change over from them being AC to DC.

I'm of the opinion that the only reason they were AC was that was the only way at the time to get that much light. DC-only fixtures back then didn't offer nearly as much light output. Now, with modern LED elements, it'd likely be better to go through the rigmarole of rearranging the wiring a bit to move them to a DC circuit instead.

Though from a redundancy standpoint there is the chance for there being a problem with the 12vdc source and having AC lighting might help in solving it. So, yeah, there's more than one perspective to consider...

 

[rslifkin]

For most of my cabin lights, I just put in LED bulbs (including LED tubes in the fluorescents in the salon). I may change out some of the fixtures in the future, but the bulbs were the cheap and quick solution. I did physically replace most of my engine room lights when I converted to LED and all of my nav and anchor lights got replaced with LED fixtures.

 

[sdowney717]

couple years ago switched to warm color LED G4 bulbs in the old lights.
I found not very bright. So I bought G4 ceramic sockets, drilled holes in the reflector and epoxied them into place. That doubled the light output

But honestly the LED bulbs, I don't think are great quality, 2 burned out after I left them on for couple of months, now they flicker.

And the light output is also a guess looking at ads. One thing is pay attention to the watts used to make the light. More watts means a brighter light output. 2 or 3 watts means a dim bulb. 5 or 6 watts is ok. One of the fixtures, I put in 3 G4 leds, for the kitchen galley light.

 

[sdowney717]

picture

I bought G4 adapters and sockets from Aliexpress.

 

[2savage]

Just an fyi. You must look at the lumens and color of what you may need or what.

Lumens is the brightness output, the high the brighter. Color, from a blueish, to a yellow, tint to a bright white. Most people like a tint of yellow because its more like a 60 or 75 watt bulb.

I am in the process of replacing LED bulbs that provide lighting akin to a public lavatory. Cold blue light sucks. Warm yellowish light provides a feeling of warmth and comfort. The fittings are the brass dome lights. There are about fifteen of them and at $24 a bulb that was an expensive mistake!

 

[AZ2Loop]

Yup, did some in my engine room. Easy to cut out the ballast from the circuit to provide power directly. Though, to be honest, I may change over from them being AC to DC.

Interesting. My 12" florescents were 12v DC. Those fixtures were in both staterooms as well as the salon. 20 bulbs in 10 fixtures. My engine room lights were easy. They were simple LED bulb replacements for the old 12v single bulb fixtures (incandescent, I suppose??). It's a worthwhile project for sure.

 

[Comodave]

On our Formula there were originally 22 flush mount halogen lights. I think they drew about 1 amp each. And the heat was awesome when you left them on for any length of time. I replaced them with LEDs so our power consumption has dropped dramatically and so has the heat. My wife doesn’t like the warm color light so I went with 4,000 degrees lights. It was a PITA to replace all of them but it is nice now. I also ordered about 6 extra of the light in case any go out and they aren’t available anymore.

 

[C lectric]

About 6-8 yrs ago I too changed to LED lgts.

I had to purchase adapters from the incandescent bulb but they have worked well.

I think I chose the 2700 colour which is roughly equivalent to the incandescents but the light output was higher so made up for it.

I chose bulbs that operated on 10 - 30VDC so they could care less about the boat system voltage changes. If they wouldn't light then I knew I was in trouble, never happened.

The old bulbs used about 1 amp each, these use between 100 to 200 Ma.
All of the bulbs we usually leave running draw less than one of the old bulbs.
However, we don't generally leave any running that we are not using except by goof ups.

I too bought spares but have not needed them yet.

Unfortunately the Co. I bought from has either shut down or at least closed their website.

Just in case they have revived they were called
Energy Efficient Products. EEP for short.
THey offered a wide range of LED lighting into the industrial range of lights.

 

[wkearney99]

Interesting. My 12" florescents were 12v DC. Those fixtures were in both staterooms as well as the salon. 20 bulbs in 10 fixtures. My engine room lights were easy. They were simple LED bulb replacements for the old 12v single bulb fixtures (incandescent, I suppose??). It's a worthwhile project for sure.

The AC fluorescent ones in my engine room are the 24" variety, and I think there's four of them?

The DC ones were much smaller, and I used a dual-color circuit board lamp element, with a pigtail into the existing bayonet socket. They power-on red. So it's on/off/on to get white.

 

[ranger58sb]

I did a search for this topic but came back empty. Anyone have any experience with LED conversions or additions?

The search tool may require a minimum of 4 characters... so LED* or something like that might work.

We've converted almost all of our incandescents, ~63 bulbs so far (including about 36 burned-out incandescents, 3 of which were nav light bulbs), to LEDs using replacements from marinebeam.com. (Apparently our PO couldn't change a light bulb.)

Most of those are disc-mounted, G4 bi-pin format, and usually 2700-3000°K color temperature, lumens selected for the location. (For example, higher lumens over the galley sink, not as high over the saloon and dinette seating.)

There was one odd size for a sconce light that marinebeam didn't carry, so I got those elsewhere and am hoping for the best. I still need to track down what I'll need for some of the exterior (cockpit and bridge) lighting... but since we rarely use those it's not yet a high priority.

The earliest LEDs we used on the last boat, from a marine-focused company that has since gone south, eventually showed signs of overheating on the backplane of the mounting discs... and that's when I started making the switch to marinebeam products.

-Chris

 

[soin2la]

Just an fyi. You must look at the lumens and color of what you may need or what.

Lumens is the brightness output, the high the brighter. Color, from a blueish, to a yellow, tint to a bright white. Most people like a tint of yellow because its more like a 60 or 75 watt bulb.

When swapping in-home, standard base incandescent bulbs, what is the equivalent LED?

i.e. what LED rating replaces incandescent 60w, 100w and a 50/100/150 tri light?

 

[rslifkin]

When swapping in-home, standard base incandescent bulbs, what is the equivalent LED?

i.e. what LED rating replaces incandescent 60w, 100w and a 50/100/150 tri light?

For stuff like that I usually go by lumen spec of the old bulb vs the new to get a sense of what will be close in brightness.

 

[ranger58sb]

When swapping in-home, standard base incandescent bulbs, what is the equivalent LED?

i.e. what LED rating replaces incandescent 60w, 100w and a 50/100/150 tri light?

For stuff like that I usually go by lumen spec of the old bulb vs the new to get a sense of what will be close in brightness.

Yep, agree, that's best a lumen-for-lumen (output) comparison. IOW, not an energy-used (input) comparison.

Even within a given wattage class, e.g., 75-watt incandescent bulbs, individual brands/products may vary lumens a bit.

-Chris

 

[Porchhound]

BTW for engine rooms if you have enough clearance for shop lights, Walmart sells some really bright 24" LED shop fixtures. I use them in my welding and wood shops. I don't know how they'd hold up in a marine environment though, but they're cheap to replace.

 

[fidlerjim]

Great topic and excellent answers.
My Mainship 430 had 44 ceiling fixtures with 20 watt G4 halogen bulbs. One fixture in each cabin was connected to 12 vdc and the rest to shorepower via 12 vac transformers. I've replaced all the halogens with LED "bulbs" but would like to remove the transformers and reconnect all to 12 vdc. I want each cabin to have a dimmer.

Over the years I've bought about 2 dozen different LEDs that were supposed to be dimmable. I've bought 4 different PWM dimmers and no combination of dimmer and bulb will dim properly. All the LEDs have voltage or current regulation circuits that fight the dimmer and the dimmer mostly functions as an expensive on/off switch.

Does anyone know how to make a LED bulb dim properly? I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible, regardless of what the seller claims.

 

[Porchhound]

"Does anyone know how to make a LED bulb dim properly? I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible, regardless of what the seller claims."

Good question! You may want to start a new thread with that question. It will get more responses. this one is a few days old.

 

[Roy]

Keep this handy. All numbers are approximate.
Incadescent Watts Lumins Florescent LED Wats
40W 600 10
60W 900 15
75W 1125 18.75
100W 1500 25
150W 2600 37.5

I keep this in my wallet when I buy bulbs for the house. I know how much light a 75 watt bulb gives, But in Home Depot, it's measured in Lumins, whatever the hell that is.
Also, watch the color in Kelvin. 2700 is a warm yellow light. The higher the Kelvin number the colder the color is. Personally, I prefer warm lighting both for the house and the boat.

 

[ssobol]

"Does anyone know how to make a LED bulb dim properly? I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible, regardless of what the seller claims."

Good question! You may want to start a new thread with that question. It will get more responses. this one is a few days old.

Depends on the LED. Home style LED replacement bulbs typically use pulse width modulation so you need an electronic device to do it (i.e. LED dimmer) and a dimmable LED bulb (marked "Dimmable").

With old fashioned incandescent bulbs you could just vary the voltage.

With regular LEDs (e.g. 12vdc LED strips) you can vary the brightness by controlling the current, not the voltage (the voltage remains constant).

 

[ranger58sb]

Does anyone know how to make a LED bulb dim properly? I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible, regardless of what the seller claims.

One method is to match the correct dimmer to the LED; see marinebeam.com for some commentary on that. I think the one that works with their LEDs is PWM, something like that.

(The LEDs we have from marinebeam do dim on whatever kind of dimmers came with this boat, same on previous boat. But that also suggests the dimmers are appropriately matched to the LEDs... through no fault of my own.)

Another way that sometimes works is to leave one incandescent bulb in the circuit. That's said to add enough load so that the existing dimmer can work.

-Chris

 

[wkearney99]

Does anyone know how to make a LED bulb dim properly? I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible, regardless of what the seller claims.

Two things involved, one being a closed loop of wiring, NOT a shared ground with the rest of the boat. Our EB47 had a terribly oddball way of running many of the lights, where the ground was not at the switch. Took a while to find the light that had the negative and then more time to wire that properly back to the switch. This way there's +/- from the boat's 12vdc to the dimmer ONLY and then the lights are only on the PWM loop.

The second being an understanding that LEDs lights have an on-board power supply that regulates the light emitting diode. Some are crappier than others, likewise some dimmers.

Best to find them paired from the retailer and sold to work that way, not mix-and-match trying to be cheap.

 

[Circumnavigator]

The major big box hardware stores sell 120V LED tubes that are direct replacements for fluorescent tubes -- no rewiring at all, just take the old tubes out and put the new ones in.


On Fintry, the only incandescents on the boat are the running lights. A single vertical filament is needed to get the cutoffs required at the edge of the color sectors, so replacing the bulbs would probably require replacing the fixtures to meet USCG requirements.


Jim