Lighting the Way:

Making the Switch to LEDs

New LED lights save energy and generate less heat.

We anchor a lot. Although our boat has a generator, we hate hearing it, so energy consumption is important as we prefer to live off our battery bank. Surprisingly, after the refrigerator/freezer, those little light bulbs are typically the next biggest draw on our electrical budget. If you don’t believe us, touch one of your cabin lights. If you’re still using halogen (12 volt) or incandescent (110 volt) bulbs, then the light fixture around the bulb is probably too hot to touch. Those lights draw so many amps because they are generating heat in addition to light. If you’re cruising Nova Scotia you might enjoy a heat lamp in your stateroom, but heat is the bane of most southern cruisers.

What’s in a bulb?
We’re all familiar with incandescent lights, the common household “light bulb” that is often used on older boats. Incandescent bulbs make light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. Halogen bulbs, increasingly popular in marine 12-volt lighting systems, are just variations of incandescent lights, using a tungsten filament surrounded by a small amount of halogen. The halogen lets the light operate at a higher temperature, extending the operating life, and producing a brighter light. At this point it should be obvious that heat is an important element of these two forms of bulbs. In contrast, an LED (light-emitting diode) is a semiconductor light source, producing light by exciting electrons that release energy in the form of photons. It’s a completely different way of making light, one that has important consequences for marine lighting.

Pros and cons of LEDs
LEDs yield big dividends in terms of energy draw. For example, our LED chart light draws 0.15 amps, compared to 0.83 amps for a single halogen bulb. It may seem insignificant, but that’s over five times the draw. Added up over a couple nights at anchor, multiplied over the light-hours in the evenings, and that amperage use really adds up. And unlike halogen or incandescent lights, LEDs remain relatively cool. You can touch the metal holder around an LED bulb and it will only be warm.
Halogen bulbs may be known for their long lifetimes, but LEDs last even longer. This is even more important for marine use because LEDs do not rely on a fragile filament. They are more durable than halogen in environments with vibration, such as on a moving boat. And, because LEDs make light with electrons, the color of the light can be changed by altering the energy gap of the semiconductor. The same LED bulb can shine white (for regular use) and with the flip of a switch can shine red (to save your night vision when reading charts). No more red plastic film or duplicate lights for night-time navigation.
On the negative side, LED lights are expensive—even more expensive than the usual marine surcharge. A 12-volt LED fixture runs $40 to $200 each. The price reflects their new, specialized market and because LED lights require more precise current management. Another negative of LEDs is that they are not as bright as halogen lights. They produce a focused warm-white (good for reading) or cool-white (good for galley and work areas) light that doesn’t have the overall room-filling brightness of hot-white halogens.
SAFETY WARNING: Like a laser pointer, LED fixtures produce collimated light (light waves which run parallel and with little spread as the waves propagate). Avoid pointing the LED light source close to and directly into your eye or you could damage your retina.

Marine LED manufacturers
There are now scores of choices for marine LED lights, ranging from recessed fixtures to multi-light strips to flexible gooseneck chart lights. The major manufacturers include Cantalupi Italy, i2Systems, Dr. LED, Hella Marine, IMTRA Marine Products and Seamaster Lights. We were looking for traditional reading/chart lights, so we chose the Dr. LED “Cobra” model for its white/red combination, style and long gooseneck.

Installation and gotchas
Before you begin, remind yourself: it’s a boat. In other words, be ready for anything and don’t count on a trivial installation. Here are some of our “surprises,” which will hopefully prepare you for everything you might encounter on your own vessel.
Installing seven fixtures, we experienced stripped mounting screws, screws that couldn’t be accessed with a screwdriver, too-short wires and a bulkhead dangerously close to the exterior hull. So be ready with an assortment of short screwdrivers and a 90-degree screwdriver tool (a must-have on any boat). Invest a few dollars in a drill stop for any installations where you are drilling out toward the hull skin. It’s also wise to undertake the project when you have access to a hardware store with a good fastener selection, in case the included screws do not work in all your installation locations. You may not have the depth or you may need more bite, depending on the bulkhead material. And keep some extra bits of wire handy in case you cut something too short or need to add a lengthening splice.
The installation logic is simple. You’re going to remove the old fixture and, following the directions and templates included with your new fixture, connect it to the two wires coming out of your bulkhead.
Step one in any electrical project: turn off the power! Then unscrew and remove the old fixture, immediately clipping something securely to each wire so that they cannot slip into the abyss behind the bulkhead. Hold each wire with alligator-clip leads while working.
Rather than the plastic twist connectors used in home electrical projects, marine installations should use marine grade electrical connectors. These are much more secure, which is important, given that the wire is going to be pushed back behind the bulkhead. Crimp the connectors with a good pair of electrical connection crimpers and test the connection rigorously. Better to have the connection fail now (in your hand) versus later (underway and behind a bulkhead).
If there is any chance of moisture, then consider covering the entire crimped butt connection with shrink tubing. Shrink tubing also adds additional security against “wiggling” short-outs. If you’re concerned that the mounting screws are not properly biting, or want extra mounting security, you can add a bit of double-sided Scotch Outdoor Mounting Tape on the back of fixture.

TIP: If you ever need to remove something mounted with double-sided tape, hold a piece of dental floss tautly in two hands and slide it back and forth to split the tape and release the mounted object.

Lights. Camera. Action!
We chose to replace all our gooseneck lights which included high-use fixtures in the saloon, galley and staterooms. The LED lights are absolutely cooler, reducing the “heat lamp” effect in the staterooms. But remember, they are not as bright overall. We find that gooseneck LED lights work best when focused directly on a small area, such as onto a book, smaller work surface or chart table. To illuminate a broader area, bounce the focused light of the LED off a white bulkhead or headliner. (We plan to add additional LED fixtures, such as recessed units, that are more specifically designed for general “room-level” lighting.)
The new lights have made a big impact on our energy budget. Substituting seven LEDs for halogen lights saves nearly five amps—almost as much as the amp-draw from our small refrigerator/freezer.
About the Authors: Mark and Diana Doyle write the Managing the Waterway cruising guide and electronic charting series (managingthewaterway.com). They live aboard their (coolly lit) PDQ 34 power catamaran, Semi-Local.