LEDs are great for lights that have to be seen, like taillights and traffic signals, port starboard, etc, but they're not so great to see by, except for flashlights and such. Not for cabin lighting, in my opinion.
It would seem you have not experienced a good quality LED bulb like the Sensibulb. They are warm and very bright and make excellent cabin lights. They also do not interfere with radios, something the cheap LED's do. They also have a constant current power supply and massive heat sink to control temperature so they don't die a premature death.
Buying LED's on price generally saves no money as they have become the snake oils of this decade..
I tried about 7 different bulbs before buying more Sensibulbs. My wife busted me every time saying she hated the light. She still thinks I put all the halogens back in an can't tell the difference between the Sensibulb and the halogens..
Sometimes you actually do get what you pay for..
Here's a comparison I did a while ago.
Hi All,
I went ahead a acquired five different high output interior 12v LED bulbs for comparison.
I wanted to capture the actual beam width and the light color as best I could. I brought the bulbs home and set them up in my garage to shine on the back of the white garage door. I placed the test fixture 25" from the door and use a Deep Cycle battery at a 13.2V float stage charge to power them.
In order to capture every bulb with everything being equal I used a Nikon D-200 DSLR on a tripod with no flash and the garage was pitch black except for the one bulb being photographed. I even re-shot each and every bulb as new ones came in the mail so they were always shot within minutes of each other and at the same level of darkness in the garage. In between shoots I also moved the fixture and camera so I wanted every bulb to be in the exact same position to be fair. The camera was set to manual mode and every picture was taken remotely and on the same exact setting, so all could be as equal as possible. The camera settings were: 1s f/10.0 at 24.0mm iso200
Please note that a camera sees color temperatures differently than the naked eye and tends to skew everything to a warmer glow. The yellow/oragie tints are actually nice and warm and the whitest bulb, the Dr. LED, is almost blue in the real world.
None of the photos, where light was captured, was post processed or run through any photo editing software. This is how they came out of the camera.
I chose these settings because it gave a clearer delineation of where the effective light spread stopped and petered into darkness.
Current Draw is as follows:
20W Halogen = 1.745 amps
10W Halogen =.87 amps
Sensibulb = .194 amps
MarineBeam 6 bulb = .158 amps
MarineBeam 10 bulb = .188 amps
Dr. LED = .138 amps
Superbrite LED = .141 amps
To put it in perspective one 10W Halogen bulb uses 4.48 times (448% more) electricity than does one Sensibulb and one 20W halogen uses 8.9 times (899% more) electricity than the Sensibulb which was the highest drawing of the LED's tested.
This is the Dr. LED G4 / MR-11 it had the narrowest beam width and the coldest bluish color. It was also the least bright with the lowest current draw at .138 amps. At $28.99 I think the MarineBeam bulb is a better value and if you compare price, with beam width and light output, it can't really compare to the Sensibulb in warmness or beam width:
This is the SuperBrite LED's MR-11 WHP6. It's a six SMD bulb and a decent knock off to the Marinebeam MR-11-6 below. To the naked eye looks virtually identical but the lighting & current draw tell a different story. It has a cold blueish tint and is slightly less bright than the MarineBeam MR-11-6. At $14.95 it is a decent value but certainly not the best color representation. Another clue that it is not the same exact bulb as the Marinebeam is the current draw. This bulb drew .141 amps and the Marinebeam drew .158 amps.
This is the MarineBeam G4 / MR-11-6 it uses 6 SMD LED's and had a much wider beam width than the Dr. LED and about the same as the Superbrite LED bulb but was noticeably warmer in color output. Though the Sensibulb was considerably warmer and more natural looking this was the second most natural looking and fairly close to an incandescent bulbs color. It was brighter and warmer than the Dr. LED bulb and the Superbrite LED and at $24.99 it is a lot cheaper than the Sensibulb. It's a good choice for a price conscious user & it consumes .158 amps :
This is the MarineBeam G4/MR-11-10. Like the G4/MR-11-6 it uses SMD LED's but instead of six it uses ten. It was brighter but notably colder than it's smaller sibling bulb. At $27.99 it is a lot cheaper than the Sensibulb and a good choice for a price conscious user who needs more light output than the G4/MR-11-6 type bulbs can give.. I was not impressed with the color rendering of this bulb and it is tending towards colder rather than warmer especially when compared to the other MarineBeam bulb. It consumes .188 amps :
This is the Sensibulb and it fits both horizontal and vertical fixtures it had the widest beam width, even hitting & wrapping up onto the ceiling. It also had the warmest most incandescent like light output and was definitely the brightest of the tree bulbs but also the most expensive at $39.95 ea ($35.95 with 10% discount). It was significantly brighter than the Dr. LED bulb but also drew the most current of the three LED's at .194 amps (note the reflection off the ceiling and keep in mind this bulb was only 25" from the door):
I have also included this G4 10W Halogen bulb photo for comparison. It draws .88 amps or 448% more than the Sensibulb:
Here's a G4 20W Halogen bulb it draws 1.745 amps per hour or 899% more than the Sensibulb. In terms of light output the Sensibulb falls in between the 20 watt and the 10 watt halogens..
These are the bulbs tested:
From L to R: Sensibulb, Marinebeam G4/MR-11-10, Marinebeam G4/MR-11-6, SuperBrite LED MR-11 WHP6, Doctor LED Mr-11
Front Row: 10 Watt G4 Halogen, 20 Watt G4 Halogen
Test Fixture:
Lumens:
The question of lumens comes up a lot so here it is straight from Practical Sailor. The lower the color temp the warmer the bulb. The Sensibulb is still the widest and brightest.
Here's the technical color temp and lumen data from the Practical Sailor test:
Sensibulb (Daylight)= 150
lumens / 60" beam width / 2990 color temp
Sensibulb (Soft Light)= 130
lumens / 58" beam width / 2650 color temp
Cruising solutions MR 11 6P = 72
lumens / 48" beam width / 3300 color temp
Cruising solutions MR 16 9P[/b]= 108
lumens / 44" beam width / 3300 color temp
Dr. LED MR-11= 35
lumens / 25" beam width / 3850 color temp
P.S. If you mention to the folks at Sailors Solutions that you read about the Sensibulb here, Nick, one of the owners, has agreed to give 10% off..
