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New boat owner, need tips on interior LED lights

8K views 28 replies 23 participants last post by  Captain Canuck 
#1 ·
I've recently purchased my first boat a North American Spirit 23, I'm looking to install Interior LED lights, does anyone have any pointers?

Thanks in advance
 
#3 ·
Replacement bulbs are the easiest way to go - and less expensive. I have installed a number of Imtra replacements in my dome and reading lamps over the last couple of years and they have worked well. You will have to determine what type of socket you have and then check to see whats available. I got mine from Defender.
 
#4 ·
We too have put LEDs in place of incandescent on most of our interior fixtures. Our incandescent bulb was an #1141. You can purchase replacements at almost any marine store or online. I have no affiliation with this online company but I am going to order a bunch from them.

We also installed two of these in the galley and they are surprisingly bright. They take six AAA batteries - so, no wiring at all.



At $20 each they were a very good solution for us.

Rik
 
#6 ·
I have a Catalina 25, and I replaced all of my interior cabin lights with LED's. While not the least expensive option, I purchased complete fixtures, mainly because my old fixtures were not in the best shape. They were those cheap RV style 12V fixtures anyway. I only needed 5 of them to do a complete replacement. I purchased mine through Catalina Direct, so I got fixtures designed as replacements for my boat.

I paid about $25 per fixture. Each one was extremely simple to replace, only 2 wires each and had to drill 4 new holes to mount each one. Each one took about 15 minutes to install, so a couple hours work and I was done.

I can now light the whole boat for less than the amp hour cost of a single incandescent bulb that I replaced. The light is "whiter" than the gentle yellowish glow of the incandescent, but it is not overly harsh. The fixtures have a nice design that diffuses the light well, and also provide a "spot" directly underneath. This is very nice up in the V Berth for reading.

Summary: Easy. Worth it. Do it.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Do your homework first

My best advice is make sure you do your homework first. LEDs are rated both by Kelvin Color and Brightness. Get ones that are well into the white range and bright enough to actually use. I made the mistake quite a few years of buying a then quite expensive LED light to replace one of my cabin lights and it actually was bright enough to use as a night light! The technology and costs both have improved drastically since then but you still need to make sure of what you are getting.

A good place to start understanding is autolumination dot com/colors dot htm.
 
#13 ·
#15 ·
For the benefit of others looking at the thread who have festoon type bulb holders (a metal pointed cap at each end of cylinder, typically 44, 42, 31 mm long). I bought festoon type bulbs with 6 and 3 leds, one of the 6s was red. I found the 6 to be properly warm white while the 3 was much cooler. Since the 6 warm is not as bright as a 10w incandescent, I'll be going with 6s in each of my lamps. Excess brightness does not seem to be an issue.

I got mine from superbrightleds.com and the model number I liked is 4210-xHP6.
 
#18 ·
The statement has been made elsewhere that; you get what you pay for. Maine Sail did an excellent comparison of the various available LEDs here. There was also a caution / update of them here.

I pulled out two black plastic Perko Incandescent reading lamps, and installed two of these;
.

Elsewhere in the cabin, I replaced the most used incandescents with these;


All of these are Sensibulb LEDs, available here.
 
#20 ·
That is part of the argument FOR Sensibulbs vs other LED lights. No RFI.
 
#26 ·
A someone who has replaced their interior lights (but not fixtures) with LED units last summer here's some pointers:

-DO IT. LEDs use remarkably less electricity
-Pull one of your bulbs and bring it to an AUTOMOTIVE parts store. I did this and found my bulbs for 6$ (Canadian, so like 1.47 USD) each. The same bulb online from chandlery websites were running anywhere from 25-50$ a piece.
-If you put the bulb in and it doesn't light up it's because your polarity is backwards (positive and negative wires). LEDs only allow electricity to flow in one direction, unlike incandescent bulbs. Simply find the wires to that light housing and flip them (use shrink tube to patch the the connections, no electrical tape!)

Here's an example of one of the bulbs in my fixtures:
 
#27 ·
AAA batteries tend to cost exactly the same thing as AA batteries, but last 1/4 as long, so they wind up 4x as expensive. And even with LEDs, their life can be short enough that you are constantly dropping $20 on the next set of batteries, then pulling things apart to change them.

Just one man's opinion, they're a RFPITA.
 
#28 ·
You'll find that the LED wires are always a much finer gauge than the incandescent fixture wires, which makes it a challenge to crimp connectors on and heat shrink. I'm going to guess and say my interior light wiring is 16 gauge and the LED fixtures are 22 per 24 gauge, smaller than my wire strippers go.
 
#29 ·
Last season I replaced all the bulbs on my Hunter 29.5 with LEDs. I expect they will outlast the boat. They're whiter than the incandescent bulbs I replaced, but they use so little power that I should be able to run them for days on the house bank.

I haven't replaced the steaming lights yet, as I rarely sail at night. I think those plus a permanent solar panel will be next season's project.
 
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