LED Lights - Again!

Gunni · Mar 14, 2014

No need for a new fitting, you just need to be sure that your LED is designed to deal with the wide voltage range a marine lamp experiences. 11-15 VDC. Improper designs overheat. Proper designs run much cooler than the incandescent OEMs - safer.

Phil Herring · Mar 14, 2014

Yes, these LED's are designed for marine applications, so the voltage should be okay.

Thanks for the feedback on this! We just put it online a couple days ago and I'm curious to see how this works. I'm something of an idiot about all things electrical and this seemed helpful to me... so I thought others might like it, too.

Mark Maulden · Mar 14, 2014

Not to poo-poo our site's selection but if you want to retro to LED I would suggest to buy one light only and see if it fit's your application/expectations. Our boat is all reading lights with 1156 bulbs. Basically single filament automotive taillights. I went through this last fall and really glad I followed this process as the 4-5 lights I tried were really bad. They are LED towers. No way they performed to what was specified. I did end up finding one that works well. Phil, who is the supplier for the towers?

Indysailor · Mar 14, 2014

Mark Maulden said:
Not to poo-poo our site's selection but if you want to retro to LED I would suggest to buy one light only and see if it fit's your application/expectations. Our boat is all reading lights with 1156 bulbs. Basically single filament automotive taillights. I went through this last fall and really glad I followed this process as the 4-5 lights I tried were really bad. They are LED towers. No way they performed to what was specified. I did end up finding one that works well. Phil, who is the supplier for the towers?

Mark, please define bad. I'm interested in making a transition and would like to know more about how to choose LED lights. We've established that these LEDs are ok for a marine application, are you referring to quality, reliability, brightness?

Phil Herring · Mar 14, 2014

It's true they're not all the same. Some have bad light (i.e., blue-ish), lack reliability, or don't throw much output.

I haven't had these side by side with a Sensibulb to make a color and output comparison but they seem but we like what we see so far.

Maine Sail has a great article on this in his forum, I believe.

Dave602 · Mar 14, 2014

I replaced all mine from Marine Beam. Their warm color bulbs mimic incandescent light. Good quality and reasonable prices

http://store.marinebeam.com/bulbs.html

Meriachee · Mar 14, 2014

I replaced all the interior lights with leds last year, and of course the sockets were different from the 11xx series bulbs. I got new sockets, drilled out the rivets and replaced them in all the light fixtures, and yes the bulbs were polarized, and some of the wiring was reversed on the house side. While this seems like a lot of work, it effectively leaves the interior looking very stock, but with up to date electrical.

Cheers
Gary

Meriachee · Mar 14, 2014

Phil,

Just had a look-see at the new page, and yes, the layout is very good. What I might suggest is a slightly better shot of the contact layout on the bases of the analog lights. The 1157 series (dual contact) typically has offset pins on the side to orient the bulb such that it will only go into the socket one way. That might not be quite so obvious from a picture.

Phil Herring · Mar 14, 2014

That's a good point, Meriachee, thanks!

Mark Maulden · Mar 14, 2014

Indysailor said:
Mark, please define bad. I'm interested in making a transition and would like to know more about how to choose LED lights. We've established that these LEDs are ok for a marine application, are you referring to quality, reliability, brightness?

The stock lights on our boat are reading lights. So, there is no light emitted through the sides of the fixture. The inside reflector is silver so it has good reflectivity and all llight goes straight out. I did not want to go through the expense of replacing the fixtures. So, I used the existing incandescent bulb as a baseline and compared several tower LEDs procured via some i'net sites. When I said bad, they were blue (even though they said warm) and the brightness was nowhere near the incandescent even though the LED stated a high lumen figure with an acceptable voltage requirement. My requirement was that it was at least as good as the incandescent output and pattern. The tower that I found has five LEDs on the end shining straight out along with the rows that go down the side. The tower actually protudes very slightly out of the fixture and therefore the pattern is a bit wider than the incandescent with the same brightness which I like. Color was very very slightly on the bluer side but I accepted it. I think it was spec'd at 3K and incandescents are around 2750K. I did not perform any electrical tests etc. I have no idea of reliability as I've not had them very long but stated somewhere around 100,000 hrs if I remember correctly. Phil, as a suggestion, you might want to show the end of the tower lights...still curious as to the mfgr. Again, I'm NOT out to cast a shadow (I'll take it) on our site's products. Just relating to a past experience..

JRacer · Mar 14, 2014

Dave602 said:
I replaced all mine from Marine Beam. Their warm color bulbs mimic incandescent light. Good quality and reasonable prices

http://store.marinebeam.com/bulbs.html

Marinebeam is the answer. Replace all my fixtures last year with his switchable red/white leds and very happy with the results.

Phil Herring · Mar 14, 2014

Thanks Mark, no offense taken. I agree with all you've said and showing the end of the light is a great idea.

Gene Neill · Mar 15, 2014

Personally, I find "blue" lighting (6000K or better) to be highly desirable. "Warm" and "soft" lighting looks like a candle in a cave to me, dull and depressing. Last century's lighting (or last millennium's).

Personal preference I suppose, but I personally wish "warm" and "soft" lighting would hurry along to history's dustbin where it belongs.

NotCook · Mar 15, 2014

Dixie, I'm just the opposite. I find the colder blue colors stark and difficult to see and read by - and generally cheap looking. Lots of the early retro LEDs were on the colder end of the spectrum.

weinie · Mar 15, 2014

After reading this I might order some LEDs. Does anyone know which "base" the catalina 27 uses in the interior cabin lights?

John Nantz · Mar 15, 2014

Phil - that's a nice LED conversion table

Really handy table.

http://shop.sailboatowners.com/cu/detail-led.php

On my Comer LBPS1800 video light they have an interesting design because they mix the "warm" and "cool" colored lights and the result is a very pleasing, to my eyes, Goldilocks color of light, not too warm and not too cool.
http://lacolorpros.com/product/?CM1800-Comer-CM-LBPS1800-On-Camera-LED-Light-(Sony-Battery)

With the Comer, the top and bottom rows (6 bulbs) are "cool" while the middle row (4 bulbs) is "warm".

The Comer has been manufactured for a couple years now and I understand the LED manufacturers have made improvements in their color temperatures. Unfortunately, all the ones I have are the early vintage and also, unfortunately, they're still working.

What I really need to do is think about replacing some of the OEM light fixtures as the white plastic trim is really starting to get a little yellow tinge with age.

Meriachee · Mar 15, 2014

But folks, please don't confuse colour (k) with lumens. They are totally unrelated. Just because a led is on one end of the spectrum or the other has no bearing on it's output. The other factor that comes into play is the placement of the leds. If you're using the lamp as a reading light, and intending it to be directional, a lamp that fulfills an "all around" design won't cut it. We put two nice halogen accent lights in the berth to read by.

The last point I would offer is that the crop of leds on the market is definitely on the right track, but still fall short in their ability to provide the same overall amount of light at their rated output. What I mean by this is that an 1157 incandescent (analog if you will) bulb is not as efficient as a comparable led bulb, and is advertised as being something in the range of 50% more efficient. While that's true from a pure technical perspective, the useable output from the led, at this time in history, is less than the 1157.

I hope that makes sense. Leds are great replacements, don't get me wrong. Just consider the three factors, colour, lumens, and the physical bulb design. It's not like going down to the corner parts place and getting replacement bulbs anymore...

Cheers
Gary

Maine Sail · Mar 15, 2014

Meriachee said:
the useable output from the led, at this time in history, is less than the 1157.

I hope that makes sense. Leds are great replacements, don't get me wrong. Just consider the three factors, colour, lumens, and the physical bulb design. It's not like going down to the corner parts place and getting replacement bulbs anymore...

Cheers
Gary

If you buy quality LED bulbs they are actually brighter. Our SCAD SensiBulbs blow away the 10W halogens they replaced and are significantly brighter. I'd guess at least 35% brighter.. The halogens also used approx 440% MORE ENERGY than the Sensibulb. The SensiBulb also exhibits no radio interference...

There are wide variations in LED emitter technology today and many of the LED's avaible are brighter than their incandescent counterparts...

Meriachee · Mar 15, 2014

Many are, but there's still a whole lot of junk out there. I wasn't trying to rain on the good stuff !

LED Lights - Again!

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