Article by Capt. Steve Katz
Those who follow this column know the topics often follow a seasonal trend or a popular trend. This week, we will discuss a popular topic, LED lighting. Just about every day I review, repair or replace a light of some type aboard a boat. While we discussed underwater lighting here a few weeks ago, this time we will discuss other LED marine lighting.
A light-emitting diode (LED) is an electronic semiconductor that converts the applied voltage to light. Most of the LED lighting work I do is retrofit, that is to install a new LED fixture or bulb in place of an existing incandescent or halogen fixture. There are projects were a customer wants to add lighting in an area, which often requires cutting holes, adding wiring and breakers/fuses for new circuits. A retrofit project can be as simple as replacing the existing bulb with an LED bulb or as complicated as adding transformers, cutting larger holes or covering up old holes and selecting the proper new LED fixture for the task.
Why use LED lighting on your boat? LED lighting uses about a quarter of the power needed for a traditional light, making a retrofit easy since the wiring will most likely have the capacity for your new lights. LED lights give off less heat, a great benefit in the summertime. The LED bulbs are often rated to last 50,000 hours (or about 5.7 years), therefore offering a good value. Many LED fixtures are often totally sealed and water resistant resulting in no maintenance of the bulb and or contacts. While I have seen my share of LED lights that have had issues, the majority work well in their intended application.
Replacement Bulbs
A quick and easy way to upgrade to LED lighting is to remove the existing conventional bulb from your fixture and install a new LED bulb. While this is simple in a home, it is not always so easy on the boat. For those boaters who find the proper replacement LED's, the results are often surprisingly good, bringing new life to an old fixture. To be sure you get the correct LED bulb, check the voltage of the existing fixture. Most interior lights are low voltage, 12 or 24 volts, but they can be DC (battery powered) or AC (household power). While the DC lighting is more popular, there are a lot of boats with 24 volt AC lights. Older Viking boats are one example. One captain recently found out his lighting was 24 volts AC and replaced all the original transformers with new transformers that output 24 Volts DC, which allowed him a wide variety of replacement LED bulbs to choose from. This conversion also allows him to install new fixtures if desired, using the existing wiring throughout the boat.
One company, Dr. LED in Seattle, Washington provides many innovative LED solutions, specializing in bulb retrofits to the marine and other industries. Another company, IMTRA, located in New Bedford, Massachusetts also offers replacement LED bulbs and also has a entire range of LED lighting just for boats. IMTRA's director of lighting sales recently visited Ocean City to see and learn more about the fishing side of boating, walking the docks and visiting boats during the White Marlin Open. This company supplies many boat builders with products and your existing lighting may be an IMTRA product.
Replacement Fixtures
Maybe you have decided you want to replace the existing fixture. If so, there are many LED options to choose from. LED lights are often offered in many colors, such as cool white, warm white, blue, red multicolor, color changing, dimming, etc. For basic interior lighting, most people select warm white or cool white based on their personal preference. The warm white color is consistent with traditional lighting and may better match the look of other interior lights The cool white is a slightly bluer light and appears brighter to some people. Cool white is a popular color for exterior lighting. There are also many other colors available alone or combined in one fixture. For example, the Lumitec Orbit light is available with white, red, blue and purple lights in one fixture, allowing the light to use any one of these four colors as selected by the switch. Lumitec manufactures many indoor and outdoor marine lights, all made in the USA.
Many LED fixtures operate on a wide range of input voltage. The Lumitec Orbit, mentioned previously, is rated from 10 volts DC to 30 volts DC, allowing the same fixture to be used in many applications. Most marine LED manufacturers have lights that operate on both popular voltages of 12 and 24 DC.
Many LED fixtures are dimmable, though not all, so if you need a dimmable fixture, please read the specifications carefully. Often, the same fixture is offered in many configurations, colors, voltages and dimming capability. The common way to dim a fixture or group of fixtures is with a common dimmer switch. This may need to be upgraded to a digital dimmer for some LED's to function properly, so please check with the manufacture to see if yours is compatible. A relatively new innovation for LED fixtures is a dimming feature designed into the fixture itself. This allows you to use a standard on/off switch to control the brightness, using a quick flip of the switch to hold the light in it’s current brightness while it ramps up to full brightness. This innovative control is also used to select the color of the light, when properly equipped. These two features make retrofitting a new fixture easy, since the exiting wiring and switching can be used to activate these modern features.
Weather you choose a new LED bulb or a new LED fixture, LED lighting offers many benefits and can be enjoyed for years to come.
Captain Steve Katz is the owner of Steve's Marine Service and holds NMEA MEI, AMEI, NMEA2000 certificates, ABYC Master Technician certification and factory training from many manufacturers.
