Converting to LED's

We have converted completely - most were festoon bulbs. From a lot of conversations with sailors on another sailing site that I moderate, this is a purchase where you need to trust your vendor - completely. There are a boat load of poor quality/design LED lights for sale - most found on sketchy / bargain 'net sites, and some even locally. It's vital to be have solid local warranty support.

Ours were branded "Lunasea" and sourced from Fisheries supply Company. Probably other good brands (and other vendors) , but even tho these great lights have progressed from new to mainstream, it is still a "buyer beware" part of the market.

Wonderful to switch on many or most interior lights and have the Amp Meter hardly take notice!
:)
 
Kylora said:
I bought 42mm Festoon LED from Boatlamps in May 2019. I was surprised to note that they were not marked for polarity and I found that they worked when fitted either way round. I assume that the electronics ensured that the chips received the correct polarity.

Ash
Click to expand...
I expect they got sick of returns due to some boats and vehicles having a positive ground, so manufactured them all with a series bridge rectifier.
 
To answer the OP question yes theoretically there are many considerations when fitting lED to an incandescent fitting.
Now for an internal cabin light generally no problem. You choose warm white or cool white colour. LED emitters by nature emit light in one direction with a beam angle around 30 to 60 degrees. So you need to orient the LED to shine its light where you want it. Some replacement bulbs have emitters all round so they shine in all directions which may suit better.
Now nav lights are required to have a defined beam angle ie a port light from straight forward to 22.5 degrees aft of abeam. Now in ordinary incandescent light fittings they use a festoon bulb with a straight vertical filament so a very tightly defined source giving precise cut off of light at the light baffle (body) or lens. An all round LED bulb has sources over a relatively large area so confusing the light cut off. A typical festoon LED replacement shines over a narrow beam so will not give the coverage.
Then using a white lED gives problems when you filter it through a coloured lens. The white appears white but does not have the same even colour content as the incandescent so greens and reds can be lost or not what we need.
Hence for nav lights it is best to use a fitting with colour emitting LEDs so a bulb for a mast head tricolour will have red leds on one side green on the other and white facing aft. Hopefully with the lens it gives the right pattern.
All very tricky if you want to be correct however as seen above most people get away with replacement bulbs of various sorts in their nav lights. ol'will
 
Allan said:
If you are planning any long trips and like red light on night watches, it's possible to buy lamps which are red when you switch them on and white if you turn them off and back on again. We have them in the head, over the chart table and the galley. Very pleased with them. I can't remember if they came from boatlamps or bedazzled.
Click to expand...
Boatlamps have them, in a couple of different strengths I think.
 
Further to the post a few above this, I've just copied this from elsewhere. We still have incandescent in the lower navs and steaming lights and an LED tricolour.
Allan
Warning not to use LED bulbs in filament bulb navigation lights

Replacing filament bulbs with white LEDs in tricolour navigational lights could result in vessels not being insured, the Cruising Association (CA) has warned.

Coloured light fittings designed to use filament bulbs are not suitable for LEDs, claim the CA’s Regulation and Technical Services team (RATS), and therefore in the event of an incident could invalidate insurance.

White LEDs do not emit the wavelengths required to correctly illuminate the red and green sectors, and, as a result the colours observed are totally outside of the IMO specifications.

In addition, a tungsten filament bulb has a single vertical wire as the light source, whereas LEDs emit light path angles greater than the permitted 2 degree cut-off limit between tricolour sectors. A boat’s heading will therefore be unclear to another vessel over a significant arc, and, the merging beams will give strange colours as they overlap.

This issue does not affect navigation light fittings designed to take LED bulbs.
 
Others have mentioned the issue with putting LEDs into nav lights designed for incandescents so I'll skip that.

For internal lighting, do consider whether it's worth replacing the bulbs. In many cases you may get a better result replacing the whole light fitting.

The BA15D bayonet fittings I replaced in the my reading lamps I'm very pleased with: good light, simple switch over. Just straightforward replacements.

The festoon bulbs in the overhead lighting I regret. I tried a number of different bulbs of varying costs none of which I loved but settled on some supplied by bedazzled: colour was OK if a little dim. But then I found they were somehow melting the plastic fittings around them despite never being particularly hot when I touched them. Contacted bedazzled who said that shouldn't happen but when I asked about returning them they stopped replying to my emails and I never heard from them again.

I've now replaced the light fittings I use most with prebit units from Calibra. Ridiculously expensive but they've transformed my living space and I regret the cash wasted on the halfway house solution with the festoons.
 
I replaced the festoons in my Leisure 20 with LEDs from boatlamps. The lights were originally fitted with 2 x 5w, I replaced with a single warm white LED at the cost of about a fiver each and am very pleased with the result so far. The current saving is astounding and the level of illumination is perfect. The lights are cool and I can't understand how they can get hot unless they're not making good contact with the holders.
 
In our experience combined full wave rectifiers on a single IC tended to fail more readily than using separate rectifiers. We have used both type on various products and the single ICs simply failed more often. No doubt its a thermal issue as separate mounted components cool more effectively when contained in a sealed environment. It's more expensive manufacturing with separate components but worth it for the improved reliability it provides.
Regards
 
I've changed all my lights to LED, and only had trouble with the nav lights, where the colours didn't show through the coloured lenses quite right. But its possible to get different colours of white. Some are quite blue (and through red lens that looks purple, and through green lens that looks blue), and some are less blue. They measure this in degrees Kelvin. I forget the value, but "warm" white lights in LED work OK on nav lights.
 
Most effective if you use red LED lamp behind red filer and green behind a green filter. Cool white is great for white lights. More lumens emitted from cool white compared to warm white so can be seen over greater distance. Don’t use cool white LED lamp in coloured light fixtures as incorrect colours will show. A warm white lamp will work OK behind coloured filters but is less efficient than using dedicated coloured lamps.
Regards
 
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