LED Light Help

[speterson1011]

I'll cut straight to the point here. I'm wanting to have less amperage draw on my lighting on my boat. I've heard LED lights are the way to go for that purpose and also have less glare on the stern light. Does anyone run LED's? On their boat and know if its less amperage draw? Thanks in advanced everyone

 

[Fireman431]

Re: LED Light Help

LED's draw anywhere from 1/64 - 1/10 the power of a standard incandescent bulb. The draw depends on hom many LED's are in your replacement setup. Some replacement lamps may containe 1-10 LED's within them. However you cut it, it's much less draw on the system.

 

[jayhanig]

Re: LED Light Help

Not only that, they last a lot longer than a regular incandescent bulb.

 

[boat1010]

Re: LED Light Help

LED's do draw less than regular bulbs, BUT most people get them because they are better lights and last longer. I'm not sure why you are concerned about the little that your regular bulbs draw. Are you just talking about your running lights? Or do you have more lights in the boat? Because if it is just running lights the charger on the motor should take care of the green and red while running. and the anchor light is only one on while the boat is anchored.If you could give us a little more information we could probably head you in the right direction. Have a great day...

 

[Stratocaster]

Re: LED Light Help

I installed LEDs in all my cockpit courtesy lights, radar arch lights, and I replaced a halogen MR-16 with an LED as well. I got them from a web-based company called SuperBrightLEDs.

This season, I will replace all of my cockpit lights (16 of em).

They use SIGNIFICANTLY less juice, when compared to the xenon and halogen bulbs installed as standard equipment. For instance, the wedge-base xenon bulbs for my cockpit courtesy lights consumed 3W. The LED bulb consumes 0.35W, or about 10% of the power of the bulbs they replaced. The old festoon-base bulbs burned 10W each - but the LEDs only consume 0.72W....LESS than 10% of the energy formerly burned by the halogens!

Expensive, but worth it for me. I don't even worry about leaving my cockpit lights on when I leave the boat at night to visit other boats.

-Strat

 

[speterson1011]

Re: LED Light Help

I was referring to **** pit lights and the anchor light when the boat is not running. I stay anchored for a long time sometimes and just want the ease of mind that the lights will draw less power than the normal bulbs. I really like how the LED lights last so long too. I have access to getting LED bulbs very cheap so I figured I'd try it out

 

[boat1010]

Re: LED Light Help

If you can get them cheap then thats the way to go.....

 

[themaniam1]

Re: LED Light Help

I too have replaced my cockpit, cabin and nav lights with LED. They will last for a long time and use very little power. Where I camp on our boat we can leave the cabin and cockpit lights on as long as we like and they do not make any noticeable difference in batter life which the other lights did. They also produce almost not heat, non to worry about or feel. I love them.

 

[smallboatlover]

Re: LED Light Help

lucky you can repalce you running lights with led lights my boats 40 years old and the boy lights the main piece of the look of the boat so cant switch it out might try redoing the light sockets and then the coursey lights

 

[5150abf]

Re: LED Light Help

DO IT!

Switched to all LED last year, even my trailer lights and they are great, I night fish so I put lights in all my storage wells and even the livewell adn I made a 4 led flood to light my rods.

Can only repeat what I have heard as to power draw but it is a better whiter light, the draw back is they are very directional, hard to find them that will light a big area.

 

[mrdancer]

Re: LED Light Help

Make sure they have a good warranty. There are plenty of poorly-made LED lights out there. An LED with a bad heatsink will fail just as quickly or quicker than your typical incandescent bulb. I was an early adopter of the LED undercounter lights (for a kitchen) and they "burned out" within a few months.

The gov't. is trying to regulate the LED industry so that we don't end up with a bunch of crappy LED lights (like we did with the CFL industry). The issue is that crappy lights leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth and no one wants to adopt new technology, even though the better lights are well worth it. The problem is that gov't is pretty much at a standstill right now with all of the budget issues.

See www.candlepowerforums.com for more info.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: LED Light Help

lucky you can repalce you running lights with led lights my boats 40 years old and the boy lights the main piece of the look of the boat so cant switch it out might try redoing the light sockets and then the coursey lights

They make aftermarket LED's with traditional socket light bases so switching them out shouldn't be an issue.

 

[sasto]

Re: LED Light Help

They make aftermarket LED's with traditional socket light bases so switching them out shouldn't be an issue.

Nice....going to find some for myself. Thanks!

 

[dsiekman]

Re: LED Light Help

I got them from a web-based company called SuperBrightLEDs.

-Strat

That's where I got mine too. Very happy with them so far. I think they were about $1.25 each.

 

[gozierdt]

Re: LED Light Help

Horizonstar,
I don't consider a valid reference to a commercial product spam at all. Thanks for giving us
another source for these LED's

 

[dbkerley]

Re: LED Light Help

I just changed all the cabin mood lighting to led tonight. I've gotten most of my less from the auto parts store. The lighting is much brighter and more pleasant because you can't see the leds. In lighting lingo it would be called a hot spot whenever you can see the light source. Leds are harsh on the eyes compared to incandescent lamps without some form of shielding.

 

[veritas honus]

Re: LED Light Help

Thanks!!! Gonna check them out now... I was referred to that company in the past and forgot all about it...

 

[dsiekman]

Re: LED Light Help

I've gotten most of my less from the auto parts store.

That was my original intent, but the kid at the autoparts store told me that the stuff they sold was crap and suggested the website mentioned above. Let's hope his boss didn't hear him...

 

[dbkerley]

Re: LED Light Help

A lot of it is. I don't use much of it "as packaged". I strip out the leds from the connectors and solder my own setups. We are in a small town and that is the only immediate source.

 

[dsiekman]

Re: LED Light Help

Hmmm...didn't know you could do that! You learn something new every day.