I am ignoramous. Help. LED's

Hipchick

Hipchick

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6 Feb 2010
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92
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Maidstone or where we drop the hook
www.sailblogs.com
We are planning to circumnavigate and becoming obsessed with power. I know LED's use a lot less than 'normal' bulbs. What do we have to do to change them? Just change the bulb or the fitting or what? I am rapidly learning nothing is simple when it comes to boats.
 
In general, you can replace the bulbs. Not always; some types of bulbs don't have replacements (mainly strip lights and halogen bulbs). Most filament bulbs can be replaced directly. Many web-sites will help; do a search on the forums to find long discussions about which is the best supplier!
 
LED bulbs

Generally if you can plug the replacement in it will work but there are lots of differences.
For just a few squid you can get a festoon replacement (it looks like a fat fuse contact on each end.
However the incandescent has a hot wire right up the middle so radiates light from one line (point). The replacement LED may in fact have a larger area of light source which only radiates light in one direction.
This can be fine for cabin lights but not good for nav lights.
For a mast top tricolour you need a bulb which actually has 3 different types of LED for red green and white each facing in the appropriate direction. A white LED having a larger area of light source can not give the crisp cut of of colours.
Indeed I would suggest cheap LEDs for cabin reading etc but go for purpose built LED nav lights.
http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-T10-36-Smd-Led-Light-Festoon-Dome-Bulb-Lamp-White-12v-p-24565.html
This little panel is brilliant for cabin light reading etc. You need a separate switch but it is very low profile and just sticks to cabin roof or bulkhead. good luck olewill
 
Hipchick said:
We are planning to circumnavigate and becoming obsessed with power. I know LED's use a lot less than 'normal' bulbs. What do we have to do to change them? Just change the bulb or the fitting or what? I am rapidly learning nothing is simple when it comes to boats.
Click to expand...

All LED lamps sold for use on boats should be fit for purpose.

LED Lamp suppliers should quote measured light output from their lamps. Total light output from a lamp, any type of lamp, is measured in Lumens. If a supplier doesn’t state the Lumen output of his product, then they may not be at all familiar with what they are selling. I personally would steer well clear of vendors who do not state the Lumen output of their lamps. Statements such as amazing light output, this lamp is equivalent to a 60W lamp, are all meaningless in the absence of the Lumen output figures.

The better suppliers will also include details of the power/current consumed by their LED lamps at a given voltage i.e. @12V. Lumens, power and current consumption are important and any published data can be quite helpful in enabling you to judge the competence of the vendor. If the figures stack up you will get a degree of confidence in their products.

I'm often amazed at the endless recommendations I read from owners of expensive boats who buy and use 50p LED lamps on their boats, these lamps generally have no specification or indeed any particular warrenty. Cheap LED lamps are constructed using resistors to limit current flowing through the lamp. If you using these lamps on a fixed voltage then these are fine. Unfortunately on our boats the voltage is not fixed, modern battery chargers can apply in excess of 16V when operating in an equalising mode. A lamp with resistors designed for 12V will see a doubling of the current taken when 16V is applied and this increased current will cause damage and reduce the service life of the LEDs considerably. At best this will lead to premature lamp failure and at worst result in severe overheating. Its actually a lottery when buying cheap resistor controlled lamps as some lamps have resistors installed that are designed for 12V and others for 13.8V, the typical car alternator output voltage. The fact is when buying such lamps you don't actually know what voltage they are designed for! If your fortunate you will get a lamp designed for 13.8V. Lamps designed for 13.8V also have a significant downside, that is, when your not running your engine or plugged into your charger, your lamp light output will be significantly reduced, the light further reducing as the battery is discharged.

LED products for boat lighting, particularly where you need reliability should have constant-current control electronics built in. This is often described as a Buck-Boost control circuit. Typical lamps will operate on any DC voltage between 10-30V DC and these lamps generally overcome all of the shortcomings of resistor controlled lamps and ensure that light output remains constant. While more expensive these lamps should come with a warrenty and be safe and significantly more reliable.

As you are contemplating a significant journey, I would strongly recommend that you purchase quality products from a registered, insured, supplier that gives detailled technical information about their lamp products and offers a full warranty and a typical service life > 30,000 hours.

Regards
 
One thing no-one's mentioned is when you've bought your bulbs and fitted them, turn the light on. If it doesn't work rotate through 180 degrees and it will then work, i.e. some only work one way round or whatever that is in electrical speak. I use expensive (variously from Boatlamps, Searolf and Ultraleds (the latter having had some bad press on here re customer service)) LEDs, but if you want you can use cheaper ones inside but get a good set of coloured appropriately bulbs for your external nav. lights. My coloured nav. lights came from Boatlamps and they're excellent...
 
The ultraleds website is good - for interior lights we used a bayonet fitting adapter (http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/382ba15s-convertor-p-2059.html) that enables you to plug in
these http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/acdc-warm-white-bulb-1w18wback-p-2087.html The pins needed trimming so that they end of the bulb is flush with the fitting.

In addition, we have a Lopolight masthead tri-white - expensive but very good. When at anchor we also have an LED orange flashing light at the height of the boom, so that we can identify our boat in busy anchorages and also so that people who do not look up can see the boat.

If you can get bulbs that fit it's definitely cheaper than the Lopolight.

BTW we also hoist an anchor ball for daytime recognition - one of the few, but not being smug, just safe.

The power savings are enormous and we no longer worry about interior lights being on or the power drain at anchor.
 
OK. There is much talk on this forum about LEDs. Much of what is said is of a somewhat technical nature and often difficult to follow. However, the simple answer is that LEDs are now as cheap as chips. Agreed, the cheap ones are not as sophisticated as earlier, more expensive versions and may therefore be more prone to either using more current than they say on the box or they may blow more easily due to voltage fluctuations. Frankly, I use the cheapest ones I can find off ebay (about £0.75 - £1.50 a throw). They barely register on the battery management system when switched on and they last about 18 months before one part of the array stops working and they need replacement.

OK. That's the domestic side of life sorted. Not an incandescent bulb to be seen down below. For navigation lights, you need to pay out for properly coloured bulbs which will actually show red, green or white, which is not the case with cheapo ones we use below. I haven't changed the bulbs to LED for 2 reasons; we don't do enough night sailing to make it worthwhile and I have a bi colour forward light which I haven't spotted a suitable bulb for! Now someone will be along shortly to tell me where I can get one......
 
One thing I don't think has been mentioned regarding using LEDs for cabin lighting is the light colour. White LEDs generally come in two colours; warm white and cool white. If you want to reproduce the yellowish colour of standard cabin lighting you should go for the warm white colour. Cool white LEDs (in my opinion) make the boat feel cold.
 
the cheap ebay ones are fine for inside, pay a bit more for nav lights, and make sure not to put white leds in green/red filtered light housings, dont worry about constant current nonsense, this is where rf interference comes from and most suppliers derate the leds by using a higher value resistance for the voltage than is necessary to make em last longer and reduce returns, they will be dimmer but cost much less .

the more fancy the control circuit, the more chance for interference , unless shielded , which most are not, ie cheap n cheerful ones don't interfere much.
 
just be careful they can cope with a voltage variation / drop and are not just 12volt. don't buy cheap off ebay or china.... ym reported some cheap one's catching fire... look for a CE mark.
 
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