LED bulbs on sailboats, another benefit.
Like many older boats, mine has old cabin light fixtures that work with a 12VDC, household size bulbs. Nice light, but they are real energy hogs!
When I first started looking for LED replacements a few years ago, there were very few available. Today, there are tons.
No doubt the market for 12VDC household bulbs has grown with recent interest in off the grid living on solar power. Now, I find various brands, wattage and color/temperature range, online. And the price has come down. Average $5 per bulb.
The wattage of incandescent bulbs I took out varied(60 to 15watt), with an average of 35 watts. That's 3 amp.hrs, per average fixture.
I bought LED 10w (60 watt equivalent lumens), 7 watt and 5 watt.
How does that compare in energy use? You could turn on all 8 LED fixtures in the boat for an hour, and drain the bank slightly more than what it took to burn one incandescent, for the same time period.
These will help extend our sailing time between charging. Our entertainment onboard, is reading books so this is significant.
The other benefit concerns voltage drop. The original fixtures were wired in 1961 with 16 gauge wire on three circuits. One circuit port side, another circuit starboard, another aft.
With 3-4 fixture on a series circuit, if you were reading in the vee berth on the port side, and somebody turned on the light in the head, you had to put your book down. What were they thinking at Alden with 16 gauge wire?
LED's are sensitive to voltage but because of the small draw, I turned them all on below and there is no dimming. Apparently they are less sensitive to voltage drop, than I expected.
I have a few small LED lights to mount in the engine room and in the new panel.