What a difference!

[DannyS]

I know this has been discussed at great length many times but I'm a latecomer to the LED conversion. I REALLY love the warm light the incandescent bulbs make our boat feel down below. Last year I bought an LED bulb for the main saloon overhead just before we left for a week long cruise thinking that we'd be away from shorepower for quite a while and if we ran low on power, this light would help us get by. I hated this light! It made us all look 20 years older than we were. This year, I bit the bullet and went with Mainsail's recommendation of the Sensibulbs. I bought two and my wife couldn't tell which bulbs were LEDs and which were incandescent. I also measured the draw; single incandescent, 1.04 amp - single LED, 0.16 amp. I've decided the extra $$ is worth it, I'm buying 5 more to replace all the incandescents.
Thanks Mainsail for all the great research!

 

[Ron20324]

maybe the "colors" were different? Cool or warm light?

 

[twistedline]

LED's are amazing! I love them.

I have been using these drop-in replacements http://www.ebay.com/itm/170775626066 for the past few months. They are not "Marine" and only designed to operate on 12V not 13-14v that boats DC can hit. I thought i'd test them anyway, I got a couple of spares in-case they blow. I've probably run all 5 lights on my boat for ~40 hours, no issues. They are very bright and produce a warm (maybe too warm) light ~3000K.

Warren.

 

[Benny17441]

I'm still holding on to fluorecent lamps for cabin lights. I think they still provide the best bang for the buck at very reasonable power draws and agreable lightning.

 

[DannyS]

They are not "Marine" and only designed to operate on 12V not 13-14v that boats DC can hit. I thought i'd test them anyway, I got a couple of spares in-case they blow. I've probably run all 5 lights on my boat for ~40 hours, no issues. They are very bright and produce a warm (maybe too warm) light ~3000K.

You've probably seen this video from Marine Beam...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdiAUovJ17w&feature=player_embedded
I've had an unfused wire chafe through and almost burn the boat down. I never want to see smoke on the boat again. The extra $$ is worth the piece of mind for me.

 

[DannyS]

I'm still holding on to fluorecent lamps for cabin lights. I think they still provide the best bang for the buck at very reasonable power draws and agreable lightning.

I still have my flourescent fixture over the nav station with the red and white bulb. That one will stay. Next time I'm on the boat I'll check the power consumption difference with the flourescent.