LEDs for Less Power Consumption

[dennisail]

Has anyone looked on ebay lately for LEDs? There are literally thousands of cheap listings for LEDs.

Has anyone replaced their incandescents with LED globes? They can be used anywhere I guess from nav lights, anchor lights, interior lights. There are too many to choose from. I dont know where to start. Most don't list their wattage either so its hard to compare. You can by straight swap in globe replacements so you don't even need to buy new fittings.

[MarkJ]

Sea Life is all LED. But they all came from the Chandelrys

[motion30]

My experience is the cheap LED provide poor harsh lighting

[flysci]

dennisail,

I've just started the replacement process, due to cost.

I bought a couple interior bulbs and a red/green nav light replacement from a company called Stecktronics. Has a web site where you can order. But the company is actually 1 highly skilled engineer who lives on a classic yacht in Boot key harbor and builds them there. His work is very high quality so cost a bit more, but having tried some cheap bulbs I was looking for bulbs that would really fulfill the long life promise of LEDs. His do.

Ciao,
Margo

[rebel heart]

I've got through a lot of LEDs. For exterior there are some great options already but for internal the only thing's bright, lasts a long time, has great reviews, and uses little power are the sensibulbs:

LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc.

I've got a few of them and I'm incredibly impressed. Running lights and a decent amount of interior lighting on with ~2amp draw total.

[dennisail]

Thanks guys. The sensibulb seems to have 2 x 5 W LEDS to make 10W. I'm sure it works great but its still overpriced considering I can get a genuine 5W headlamp from ebay for $5 delivered. I got a few of these headlamps and they are ridiculously bright. They will shine almost half a KM on the zoom setting! These high intensity LEDs are really going to take everything over soon.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/5W-Cree-Q3-1-...ht_3715wt_1145

The headlamps I got a bit different but with focus and they have a electronic circuit with a push button so it would be hard to convert it to just turn on with a normal light switch. I hope this simple single mode one will just have a simple on and off switch. So I just purchased on to see how it works. I might be able to run the guts of 2 in series to make a 10W lamp for $10. Could save hundreds when fitting out a whole boat. Plus I just like playing with project like this.

[senormechanico]

Yeah. Who needs all those electronics which produce only circuit stability with no RFI? <sarcasm>

[cfarrar]

Sensibulbs where we care about the quality of the light, like the main cabin, galley, and over the bunk for reading, etc. Cheap LEDs in the head, the kids night light, etc. Incandescents in the fixtures we seldom use.

[dennisail]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Yeah. Who needs all those electronics which produce only circuit stability with no RFI? <sarcasm>

LEDs dont produce RFI. Its only the ones with switch mode circuitry etc. I guess the sensibulbs are just regulated with resistors then. My headlamps have never caused a prob with RFI. I should be more worried about my 12V laptop charger.

[jenny2]

Originally Posted by dennisail

Has anyone looked on ebay lately for LEDs? There are literally thousands of cheap listings for LEDs.

Has anyone replaced their incandescents with LED globes? They can be used anywhere I guess from nav lights, anchor lights, interior lights. There are too many to choose from. I dont know where to start. Most don't list their wattage either so its hard to compare. You can by straight swap in globe replacements so you don't even need to buy new fittings.

I bought a couple to try china junk they burn out fast loosing 1 light at a time mine had 16 led's in each bulb I won't get anymore you know the old saying you get what you pay for plus they are not bright at all

[roverhi]

RFI can be a problem with LEDs. The LED conversion I bought for my stern light wipres out AM and HF radio despite it being 15' away from the radios.

FWIU, LEDs are very sensitive to voltage spikes and over voltage. The cheap ones work okay with a battery like in flash lights. Supposedly they can be very shortlived on a boat where the voltages can vary quite a bit. The marine lights have voltage stabiliation circuitry, RFI filtering and supposedly much higher quality/performing LEDs.

I've switched my running lights and galley and nav lights over to LEDs. I can turn all of these lights and barely see the amp meter flicker. The incandescent lights drew more than 4 amps.

[cfarrar]

FYI - We tried a couple of the newer "high output" Sensibulbs, and they're distinctly brighter than the previous model - fantastic for reading. We also tried a couple of the smaller Sensibulbs designed for small dome fixtures. I can only tell the difference between them and a 10W halogen if I look really closely.

[RSMacG]

Does anyone have any photographs of the Sensibulbs post-installation that they could share? Sounds perfect - I'm looking to replace my running lights and interior dome lights in the cabin.

[motion30]

How recent have the high output senibulbs been released?

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by RSMacG

Does anyone have any photographs of the Sensibulbs post-installation that they could share? Sounds perfect - I'm looking to replace my running lights and interior dome lights in the cabin.

Sensibulbs (not the newer brighter one) in place of 10 W Halogens.
Better color temp, slightly brighter than the halogen 10 W they replaced.