LED light turned Nav light BLUE!!!

[MarkJ]

Hi Folks

I have a normal Nav light with a 10 watt globe so I shoved a LED globe into it to save power.... But now the green side (Starboard, ya dill!) is BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do you think I should / could do?

I really want LED nav lights as I cant sail all night with the power suck of normal lights.

Mark

[noelex 77]

Hi Mark
Hope you have a great time in Sydney for New years eve. Even Nicoles blue hair wont look out of place.
Leds don’t produce an even spread of light across the spectrum, hence the unusual colour behind a green filter.
You may find a green LED globe is slightly better, but there really is no cheap satisfactory solution for bow navigation lights unless you go for an expensive complete new LED light (rather than globe). Hopefully they will come down in price soon.
With tricolour lights there are some globes that are getting close to acceptable and for the anchor light I think LED globes are OK.

[JHJensen]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Hi Folks

I have a normal Nav light with a 10 watt globe so I shoved a LED globe into it to save power.... But now the green side (Starboard, ya dill!) is BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do you think I should / could do?

I really want LED nav lights as I cant sail all night with the power suck of normal lights.

Mark

Mark and Nicolle,

First best wishes for the holidays. I enjoyed your website.

As to your navigation light problem. Navigation lights are manufactured to specific legal requirements in terms of color spectrum, intensity and angle of view in order to be approved for use and as you have found you can’t just stuff another light source in there. In the USA they must be United States Coast Guard (USCG) Approved.

Here in the US if you were involved in an accident and the investigation showed that your lights should have been on and they were not in compliance with the COLREGS you could be found at fault and I suspect the same would be true in Australia and other countries as well. This could have great effect on your insurance coverage as well and in my opinion is nothing to fool around with.

There are third party manufacturers who do make LED inserts that may work and are approved. There are others that may work but are not approved (remember what I said above about your potential liability) Also some manufacturers are now producing retrofit LED kits to work with their lights which are approved.

I suggest you contact your boat builder and ask them about approved LED lights and also the manufacturer of your navigation lights. That way you may not have to buy a whole new fixture. In any case you would want to see in writing that the lights are approved.
If your lights come from a US source and are USCG approved they should be ok where you are.

You may also want to check with your own authorities about this as well.

Happy Holidays,

John
Marine Surveyor

[JHJensen]

If you are interested in the standard for navigaiton lights. It is ABYC Standard A-16 Electric Navaigation Lights (most recent revision 7/05)

[rjrendemd]

Invest in a color wheel.

[Bash]

I love it! As one of the eight percent of the male population who has trouble discriminating between red and green, I thing we all ought to switch to blue "globes" for starboard.

I take it "globe" is Aussie for "bulb"?

[David M]

There are LED nav lights available that meet most or all of the different classification standards.

To name a few:
Orca Green Marine Technology - LED Lighting

News & Products from Hella marine - Hella marine

Its probably not a good idea to insert LED bulbs into lights that were once incandescent for the reason you experienced and the fact that nav lights must meet all kinds of specifications like vertical arc, horizontal arc, color (frequency of the light), brightness and other things. Its best to change out the whole unit.

Besides, with that blue light people are going to think you are the harbor patrol pulling them over.

[DeepFrz]

What you need for LED nav lights are colored LED lights behind a clear lens. Putting an LED behind a colored lens doesn't work well at all, as you have found out.

[George P]

Hi Mark,
Try a warm white LED bulb vs. the ultra bright white...this will make a difference on bi color or tri color lenses. For single color lens the rule of thumb is same colored LED. I replaced all my interior lights with G4 warm white LEDs and they're great. We leave them on with no worries.
George

[Badsanta]

They make approved replacement LED bulbs. BUT you have to match the color led to the nav light. Red under red and green under green. Clear in clear.

[MarkJ]

Thanks for your help, everyone

I shall ponder forking out for a propper one. We don't get all the products available overseas.

Originally Posted by bashful

I take it "globe" is Aussie for "bulb"?

I wish you Americans would learn the language! By the way "forking out" means paying for.....


Mark

[theonecalledtom]

Mark there are a few threads on this around here but the white LEDs have a more limited spectrum than the traditional equiv and so don't react to filtering as well.

Also a green or red LED emits in a specific green part of the spectrum rather than emitting across all visible light frequencies (white) and relying on the glass to filter out (i.e. waste) much of the energy.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by theonecalledtom

the white LEDs have a more limited spectrum .

Why don't these idiotts invent things I want and then give them out for free!

What is worse is that one has to become a damn expert in every field just to own a boat! I bet theres no book "Sailing for Dummies" LOLOLOL

Mark

[44'cruisingcat]

Most white LED replacement bulbs I've seen do carry a warning about them not being suitable for coloured navigation lights.

[ausieman]

Actually there is a book called Sailing For Dummies which I purchased for the Admiral. After giving it to her I then had to go and buy one called Cooking For Dummies as she told me if she has to learn every aspect of making the boat go I have to learn every aspect of providing new and interesting meals.