LED Lighting

Terry Cox

Terry Cox

.
Dec 25, 2000
5,939
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Awhile ago Main Sail recommended Marine Beam as a quality supplier of LED lights for the marine environment. Sage advice. Since then I have replaced all of the interior incandescent bulbs on our 1991 P42 with LED bulbs and am very pleased with their performance. I decided to keep the original fixtures (dome, reading and courtesy) as they were still all in good condition.

When it came time to replace the incandescent rope lighting beneath the port and starboard settees in the main cabin, I first checked with Car Toys. They wanted $70 for 16 feet, so I did some checking on the internet. Found a supplier that sold the same length for $12. The two products looked identical.

Did the same with the navigational lights. Still have a few to replace. Steaming, anchor and deck light. Those will come in time.

I noticed a significant reduction in DC power consumption. Most of the incandescent bulbs were in the two amperes range. LEDs typically in the 0.1 amperes range. I decided to leave the fluorescent fixtures in the three cabins as is.

Now at night, rather than being stingy with lighting, the LEDs get plenty of use.
 
woodster

woodster

.
Sep 15, 2009
6,243
S2 9.2a Fairhope Al
Terry Cox said:
Awhile ago Main Sail recommended Marine Beam as a quality supplier of LED lights for the marine environment. Sage advice. Since then I have replaced all of the interior incandescent bulbs on our 1991 P42 with LED bulbs and am very pleased with their performance. I decided to keep the original fixtures (dome, reading and courtesy) as they were still all in good condition.

When it came time to replace the incandescent rope lighting beneath the port and starboard settees in the main cabin, I first checked with Car Toys. They wanted $70 for 16 feet, so I did some checking on the internet. Found a supplier that sold the same length for $12. The two products looked identical.

Did the same with the navigational lights. Still have a few to replace. Steaming, anchor and deck light. Those will come in time.

I noticed a significant reduction in DC power consumption. Most of the incandescent bulbs were in the two amperes range. LEDs typically in the 0.1 amperes range. I decided to leave the fluorescent fixtures in the three cabins as is.

Now at night, rather than being stingy with lighting, the LEDs get plenty of use.
Click to expand
i have put all LED'S on my boat except for the fluorescent one and will be changing them out soon ...i can turn on all my LED'S 12 of them and they only draw what 1 fluorescent does so if i replace them with LED's i will be good to go
 
centerline

centerline

.
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
I have replaced my florescent lights with a DOUBLE row of LED strip lighting... the strip lights are slightly longer and of course have a much lower profile, but i kept the mounting width so that it would spred the light better... the leds are a lot brighter than the single tube florescents were with the lens on them... completely happy.
 
Rich Stidger

Rich Stidger

.
Feb 10, 2004
4,148
Hunter 40.5 Warwick, RI
centerline said:
I have replaced my florescent lights with a DOUBLE row of LED strip lighting... the strip lights are slightly longer and of course have a much lower profile, but i kept the mounting width so that it would spred the light better... the leds are a lot brighter than the single tube florescents were with the lens on them... completely happy.
Click to expand
OK, I am lurking here.... Great idea on the LEDs instead of florescent. I'm going to copy that.
 
Allan12210

Allan12210

.
Jan 22, 2008
1,667
Hunter 34 Alameda CA
Rich Stidger said:
OK, I am lurking here.... Great idea on the LEDs instead of florescent. I'm going to copy that.
Click to expand
I replaced one of my fluorescent lights with this led array from Amazon. It was a bit pricey, but I really like how bright it is over the vanity.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CWMQKMQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its taken awhile to settle on the color of the lighting. We have more of a preference for the soft white (2700 K) over the cool white or daylight (6000 K). Those look bluish to us and aren't quite pleasing. However, its nice to crank all of those LEDs up and hardly draw anything. And better yet, we can see stuff!
 
B

braol

.
Apr 16, 2014
348
Hunter 27 Rebel 16 Great Lakes Naval Base, IL
Terry Cox said:
I first checked with Car Toys. They wanted $70 for 16 feet, so I did some checking on the internet. Found a supplier that sold the same length for $12. The two products looked identical.
Click to expand
OK, so now we all want to know WHO your supplier of cheap LED rope/strip lights is! Do tell. :)
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

.
Feb 6, 1998
11,711
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
Rich Stidger said:
OK, I am lurking here.... Great idea on the LEDs instead of florescent. I'm going to copy that.
Click to expand
I convert an awful lot of flourescent fixtures to Marine Beam LED tubes... Amazingly bright! The warm white is actually warm and they use a high quality constant current power supply..

 
Terry Cox

Terry Cox

.
Dec 25, 2000
5,939
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Light Switch

Ed H said:
Do you add an on/off switch? Which one and how did you do it? Thanks.
Click to expand
The original incandescent rope lights were connected to a circuit breaker on the main panel. I used the same on off switch when I replaced the old rope lights with LED rope lights.
 
S

sesmith

.
Jul 1, 2010
990
Catalina 350 Port Huron
centerline

centerline

.
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
Maine Sail said:
I convert an awful lot of flourescent fixtures to Marine Beam LED tubes... Amazingly bright! The warm white is actually warm and they use a high quality constant current power supply..
Click to expand
thanks for posing the video, I didnt know they made LED replacements for the florescent tubes... its a great way to do a quick conversion. providing that you have a good fixture to work with.
I have 1 double tube thin-lite fixture in my 25 that I can/will now convert, but the florescent fixtures in the 34 were not the quality that i would want to live with anyway.

so for anyone who cares to easily make their own nice looking fixtures that they can use the self adhesive strip lights with, as I did, read on....

what i did to make the fixtures (2) that I used in my 34 for installing twin strip lights in place of the tube fixtures, I used a piece of 4' wide mahogany that I cut to length, then finished the edges with a router...
then I drilled 2 recessed screw holes and holes for the light wires, and finished it to a gloss with spar varnish...

the strip lights were self adhesive so they stick very well to the surface of the finished wood... and then mounted a switch in a location that is more conveniently located than on the light itself.

the third light...

under the sidedeck recess above the dinette, I used a 6ft strip light, but I wanted it a bit more subtle lighting from it (they are so bright!)
so I used a strip of mahogany, 1/2"thick x 1.5"wide x 6'2 long...
I drilled holes in it so i could mount the strip under the side deck area, on edge so it hangs down 1.5 inches, like a short valance....

after finishing it, I stuck the 6ft strip light to the back side of it, and mounted it up under the side deck.... and put the switch in a convenient location.

what I have now is recessed lighting over the dinette area...the light behind the small "valance" of wood reflects off the polished cabinetry behind it and makes plenty of light for reading, eating, visiting but its not direct or harsh from any angle.

before doing this, when the florescent light was on (at night) anyone setting across in the opposite settee looking towards the person setting in the dinette settee, had the light forever in their eyes while visiting.... this is much better.
 
Seahorse24

Seahorse24

.
Nov 6, 2014
122
Yankee Yankee Seahorse 24 Beaver Lake
Terry Cox said:
Awhile ago Main Sail recommended Marine Beam as a quality supplier of LED lights for the marine environment. Sage advice. Since then I have replaced all of the interior incandescent bulbs on our 1991 P42 with LED bulbs and am very pleased with their performance. I decided to keep the original fixtures (dome, reading and courtesy) as they were still all in good condition.

When it came time to replace the incandescent rope lighting beneath the port and starboard settees in the main cabin, I first checked with Car Toys. They wanted $70 for 16 feet, so I did some checking on the internet. Found a supplier that sold the same length for $12. The two products looked identical.

Did the same with the navigational lights. Still have a few to replace. Steaming, anchor and deck light. Those will come in time.

I noticed a significant reduction in DC power consumption. Most of the incandescent bulbs were in the two amperes range. LEDs typically in the 0.1 amperes range. I decided to leave the fluorescent fixtures in the three cabins as is.

Now at night, rather than being stingy with lighting, the LEDs get plenty of use.
Click to expand
I plan to replace all of the lights in our Yankee Seahorse 24 with LED bulbs. I ordered new navigation lights to replace the melted plastic lens on the original lights. The replacements came with the standard incandescent bulbs, but I order LED bulbs to replace those. The reduction in DC current is substantial and the lights are bright. We have not installed them yet, but we have tested them.

I have attached photos that show the old navigation lights verses new replacement lights. There are two big benefits to converting to LED Bulbs.

One, the life of the LED bulbs are tens of thousands of hours, meaning I don't have to take the Mast down to replace a bulb every year. Secondly, my battery can run all of the LED lights on the boat for weeks without having to recharge it. Third, the LED bulbs run much cooler and do not melt the plastic lens. We also ordered LED replacement bulbs for the interior cabin lights so can keep the original fixtures. The interior bulbs are larger than the navigation bulbs shown in the photo.
 

Attachments

Jim Seamans

Jim Seamans

.
Mar 21, 2004
2,175
Hunter 356 Cobb Island, MD
Conversion to LED strip lighting

This last week, I replace all of my fluorescent lights to led strip lights 12v. Kept the fixtures and inserted the strip and hooked up to the switch. Almost better than sliced bread...

Received in the mail today:

SUPERNIGHT (TM) 16.4ft 5M Waterproof Flexible 300leds Color Changing RGB SMD5050 LED Light Strip Kit RGB 5M +24Key Remote+12V Power Supply

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ASHP1CM

I plan to place these up on the shelf in the main saloon area to provide lighting in the main cabin, mostly red for night time sailing. Saw this on fellow sailors boat and Admiral said get them installed.... so I am...
 
Marc14857

Marc14857

.
Jun 5, 2004
485
Hunter 44 Mystic, Ct
Re: Conversion to LED strip lighting

Jim

Did you replace the fluorescent tubes with strips? Any chance of getting a picture. My boat has 5 fluorescent fixtures with two tubes each and replacement LED tubes are about $30 each which makes it a bit expensive to change them all out.

Thanks
Marc
 
centerline

centerline

.
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
Marc14857 said:
Jim

Did you replace the fluorescent tubes with strips? Any chance of getting a picture. My boat has 5 fluorescent fixtures with two tubes each and replacement LED tubes are about $30 each which makes it a bit expensive to change them all out.

Thanks
Marc
Click to expand


Thats what i did... replaced the florescents with strips... it works as good as anything else you could do... make sure you get strips of the soft white variety as the bright white is a bit harsh for general salon lighting...
 
Jim Seamans

Jim Seamans

.
Mar 21, 2004
2,175
Hunter 356 Cobb Island, MD
sorry, forgot to take pictures as i did this. but it is simple. soldering iron and very cheap led strips to make the conversion.

found white led 5m strips for $8 and shipping on amazon...

hard part is taking the fixtures down and reinstalling...

Hope to be headed south to the Keys week of Nov 17....
 
Jim Seamans

Jim Seamans

.
Mar 21, 2004
2,175
Hunter 356 Cobb Island, MD
What sweet thing to do - LED's

After replacing the fluorescent lights with LED strips. I went just little over the edge...

I purchased off Amazon. LED RGB dimmable remote controlled strip lights. I installed them along the saloon shelf. Was able to get 12v power from the reading lights. Biggest thing is the only use 1A each on full light, didn't check what happens as you dim them down.
Plan to use the RED for night sailing. This is going to be fun.. Disco on Java...

http://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-Wa...415558853&sr=8-1&keywords=led+strip+light+kit
 

Attachments

Akapeterc

Akapeterc

.
Mar 23, 2013
132
Hunter 44DS Lake Macquarie
My lights are connected to the switch so you can either have the LED lights on or the flu-row lights


image-4159953206.jpg



image-2961036027.jpg



image-2050723988.jpg



image-398223456.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top Bottom