We're now ~all LED

[SvenG]

Given some of Mainsail's studies we may regret some of it, but on the whole we are pretty confident we've made the right investments.

We do still have three incandescent bulbs for the old nav lights, but that's it and they will be replaced too.

3 high intensity reading light bulbs

3 white/red perko-style dome lights

9 white/brighter perko-style dome lights

2 hockey-puck spreader lights

1 masthead tri-color

1 masthead anchor light

2 headband working lights

3 flashlights

It's probably a $1,500 investment by now but I think it is better than an eighty percent power savings. The perko-style dome lights are actually also a lot more pleasant/warmer than the florescents they replace.



-Sven

[hummingway]

Nice but that's quite an investment but then I almost never turn on the incadescents so they are pretty much useless.

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Nice but that's quite an investment

I should have noted that it is both the LED lights and the fixtures.

Still a lot cheaper than a generator which is what we were contemplating. We're also going with a Frigoboat fridge with a keel cooler.

Hope to get by with mostly solar until we get back up north.



-Sven

[Jon Hacking]

Sven, it spounds like you've already made your investment. We're still in the process of converting. We've replaced all our 10W & 20W G4 halogen bulbs (small, with pins 4mm apart) with small disks of 10-12 LED SMD-5050 chips. These put out 120-150 lumens, compared to the ~100 lumens of a 10W halogen. We bought warm-white, which are a bit yellower than the halogens, but very pleasing & you don't notice the color. Each SMD-5050 chip draws about 0.01A, so ~0.1A for the 10s, & ~.15A for the 12s.

The 10-segment disks were US$11 each from the US, but the 12-segment disks were only $4 from China (http://lightinggreen.cn). I worked with Jessie & can recommend her. They sell LOTS of different types of LEDs.