LED lighting

[Nancy]

I'm thinking about replacing the halogen bulbs in our cabin dome lights with LED bulbs. I will only do this if the replacement bulbs are at least as bright as the halogen bulbs.

The fixtures are obsolete Guest 8018-11 dome lights using 10-watt #912 miniature wedge bulbs. I'm not sure if they're T5 or T10. I've looked at marinebeam.com, Defender, doctorled.com, and others, and it's not clear what the best or most economical approach is.

I'd also like to replace the two 31mm festoon bulbs (8 watts each) in the Attwood anchor light. Defender has a Dr. LED bulb (http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... id=1645280). Marinebeam's choices seem more complicated, but less expensive (http://store.marinebeam.com/perko-31mm- ... light.html). So I'm confused on this, too.

Then there are companies like LEDwholesalers where the choices are even more extensive. And there I see festoon bulbs at a fraction of the marine prices. Is there really a difference?

So...it's a lot of questions and a huge subject. Would welcome any input.

[RobS]

See my post re: mast light
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5279&hilit=Festoon

[Nancy]

Thanks, Rob. I'd searched on "led lighting" and your post of course didn't fit the criteria.

[Serenity]

nancy try a chain auto parts store. I replaced all of interior bulbs. Lighting is fine

[ScubaPete]

I like to buy American, but I couldn't resist the prices on e-bay for LED lights, most come out of China. I can buy two bulbs, for less than $2.00 with free shipping. Even if they don't work, I'm not out a whole lot of cash. Pay through Pay-pal, so there's no direct credit card risk. They usually arrive in 3-4 weeks, and everyone has been great.
The biggest concern I had was LED brightness. Go for the bulbs with the most LEDs per bulb. I replaced my Aqua Signal mast lights with LEDs, each with 102 individual little LEDs, and I will never have to worry about someone seeing me at anchor at night. They are really bright.
As far as interior LEDs, it is hard to tell from the descriptions just how bright they are compared to halogen bulbs, but generally, the more LEDs, the brighter.

[Serenity]

I do not believe there are any US manufacturers that make LED's.Most come from China. The same thing is true with TV's. The best LED lite is manufactured by Cree. True LED's are not as bright as incandescent but in a cabin it is the ambiance , unless you are going to read a Tale of Two Cities.

[Russell]

Nancy: After seeing Rob's post I went to LEDlight.com and purchased ultra bright festoon bulbs for the anchor light and they seem to be brighter than the incandescent bulbs that were in there. I also replaced all the courtesy lights with super bright amber yellow festoon bulbs. Super brights are cheaper than the ultra brights. I also purchased the 36 LED BA15D bulbs (code 36451) in red and white for the dome light in the pilot house, a great improvement over the incandescents, especially the red. Unfortunately they did not have anything for the interior dome lights and if you find anything please post.

[Serenity]

I replaced all of the dome lights with LED.s from Pep Boys.

[Nancy]

Our dome lights turned out to be challenging due to the wedge bulbs.

I looked at a lot of web sites and ended up reading the informational pages at marinebeam.com. It all made sense, and I called them this morning. I ended up ordering the 9-LED Universal Wedge Matrix LED Replacement (http://store.marinebeam.com/wetyledre.html) based on Jeff's recommendation. I liked the personal service, the 30-day satisfaction guarantee, and the assurance that these units are made to withstand voltage fluctuations and not cause or react to interference from electronics. He earned my business.

I also ordered the 31mm festoon bulbs (http://store.marinebeam.com/perko-31mm- ... light.html) for our Attwood anchor light.

[RobS]

Nice work Nancy. I absolutely love the LED's in the cabin, besides diminshed current draw it is a much more pleasant lighting and cool to the touch. Your festoon is cheaper than what I purchased and appears it will be even brighter with the higher LED count. I had my Albin alongside another 28te a couple weeks ago. My LED mast light was a bit whiter and brighter than his original incandescent festoon.

[Pitou]

Nancy, Rob and everyone .... thank you for all the great info on LED lighting.

I took the plunge and ordered all my bulbs from MarineBeam. I swapped out the 10 watt halogen dual pin bulbs in the cabin and head with a series of G4 combination bulbs. The dome over the galley sink and aft of the table as well as the head I used the 3 red/6 white combo as sometimes while underway at night someone is inevitably using the head or doing something in the galley area that requires lighting and the red works well for the captain. The remainder I used combination 3 blue/6 white. I do like the blue when hanging below and enjoying a cocktail with friends. If you need to read or do something that requires white light I've got that option too. Pretty cool for a single switched fixture. 1 click gives red and a second quick click turns it warm white. Unfortunately the blue/white bulb has a cool white bulb which is not as easy on the eyes as warm white. I pretty much find myself opting for the comfortable blue lighting while hanging out anyway.

After seeing Rob's picture of the blue dome topside in the pilot house I swapped out the bayonet dual bulb fixture lights with G4s using MarineBeams bayonet to G4 swivelling adaptors. Pretty cool! I now have 1 blue 6 LED bulb & 1 red 6 LED bulb as opposed to the red / white incandescent original set-up.

I very much wanted to swap out my masthead and anchor bulbs, but I am having a difficult time finding bulbs that fit my anti-glare masthead all around fixture that will give me the 2 nm coverage that is necessary. That search continues or I may wait until next season as I'll be going through a complete electronics redo and lots will change on the mast and maybe that will be the time to swap out the masthead/all around pole. I did swap out the transom running light with a tower LED bulb and replaced the old yellowed Atwood lens cover.

Two seasons back I replaced all of the courtesy lights with red LEDs from Hella and just yesterday I replaced the 50 watt halogen deck lights with LED fixtures.

Thanks again to everyone for sharing your research and the get it done motivation that came with it!

[RobS]

Sounds good Kev, glad to help even if it was only by way of inspiration. Spent two full days and the overnight on the hook last weekend and the LED's were surely appreciated in the cabin, pilothouse and on the mast..

[Nancy]

Glad to have helped, Kevin. Did you ask Jeff at Marinebeam about your masthead light?

[Pitou]

Glad to have helped, Kevin. Did you ask Jeff at Marinebeam about your masthead light?

I do plan to call Jeff after his 2 week vacation shutdown is over on the 26th. I had never needed to change out the masthead/all around bulbs before and went to the website where I purchased the light for bulb numbers. Turns out they had the wrong number. I went to the Perko site for the correct info. It turns out MarineBeam doesn't list any of their bulb matches (wedge type) as Nav. compatible. I did speak to Jeff when researching my order and found him extremely helpful. I haven't given up yet!

[Tree]

Bringing this thread back to life - one of my interior lights has a faulty switch. It's only come about since fitting the LED's, obviously not drawing enough current.

However after searching for a bit, the redundant Guest 8018 fitting is now a Labcraft Rondo 2 or at very least its very similar.