Mac Mods – LED Upgrade

[Anonymous]

Mac Mods – LED Upgrade
Tickety-Boo, Sat May 25 2013, 03:07PM

Below is what we used on Tickety-Boo and are very, very happy with them:

At the recent MacRendezvous, everybody was impressed by our LED Mods and requested
information so everybody can have a more illuminated and power conserving life. I did a bit of research and found the power savings were significant, especially since we’re using a 12V deep cycle battery.

The comparisons are as follows:

1142 (standard cabin light bulb) uses 1.55 amp vs LED at 0.016 amp.
The 42mm/44mm Festoon bulbs used for Nav and Steeming lamps each use 1.2 amp vs LED at 0.016 amp (Steeming & Stern Lamp) and 0.027 amp for the bi-coloured bow lamp.
If you have all 4 incandecant cabin lights on at the same time, you are consuming 6.2 amp vs all 4 LED cabin lights on, you’re only using 0.064 amp or 640ma!!! (not
including nav lights)
Well worth the price in my opinion.

I ordered my LEDs from http://www.marinebeam.com
Below is a summary of my invoice:

ordered 2qty: 42mm Festoon LED 9-LED SMD Cluster Panoramic (Cool White) $15ea
ordered 1qty: 42mm/44mm Festoon LED Navigation Light Cone End Type Mini-Maxi (Warm White for bi-coloured lanses) $25ea
ordered 1qty: Utility LED Anchor Light with Dusk to Dawn Photocell Sensor (6-LED Bulb, Warm White) $34.95
ordered 5qty: Bayonet 9-LED Array for Overhead Dome Lights $18ea, 5 for $80 or 10 for $150·
BA15S if your current light bulbs have 1 contact. (shown below)
BA15D if your current light bulbs have 2 contacts.

None of the LED lights I bought needed any tools. I simply removed the bulbs and stored them aboard with my spares and installed the new LED ‘bulbs’ in their place. This took about 30 seconds per bulb.

PS: Copy and paste the descriptions from this post to Marine Beam to find the specific items.

Re: Mac Mods – LED Upgrade
Gemini, Sat May 25 2013, 07:06PM

I was very impressed with the amount of light your running lights put out. Excellent for being visible to other boats. I do wonder if the brightness of the mast light would have a negative effect on night vision. Perhaps the knowledgeable night sailors could comment on this. I have also replaced my interior lights with LEDs. You are right on with the savings in battery life. Great post Tickety Boo.

Re: Mac Mods – LED Upgrade
Sea Shell, Sat May 25 2013, 08:30PM

Funny thing about night sailing…..
You can’t see the sails…. So you end up shining a flash light at the wind vane and to look at the tell tales for proper trim, so there goes your night vision. If you had a really bright steaming light, you could properly see your sail trim. So it might be a good thing. Just my limited night sailing experience.
They look like great lights Roberto & Angelee. Thanks for the links and info! Cheers Glen

Re: Mac Mods – LED Upgrade
Tickety-Boo, Sun May 26 2013, 12:48AM

My understanding is that you don’t use the streaming light when under sail, only when under power, so I assume there wouldn’t be much in the way of reflected light back at you… It’s a valid comment though — white light sucks for night vision!

[Rob & Angelee]

We have been running the Marinebeam LEDs throughout the boat for 9 years now and I must say… we swear by them.
It turns out the LED bulb we installed into the steaming light does not effect night vision. We did a trip from Blaine to Sucia island one year and arrived at 1am so the trip was done in the dark.

Crab pot floats were slighlty illuminated and the deck was only very dimly lit. Truly, there was more light coming from my instruments than from any of the nav lights.

We are lookin to add another cabn light in the queen berth and will definitely be buying another Marinebeam LED.
Oh… we have had ZERO failures.

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