Suggestions for LED bulb replacements

[simdim]

Folks,
I am slowly moving around the boat changing incandescent bulbs to LEDs - had started with navigation lights. Next project is cabin lights - and there are a lot of varieties of LEDs on the market, however I am looking for the usual insight from people on this forum to identify what works what does not and what provides the best "warmth" as far as color temperature goes - had tried some cheaper automotive led bulbs and cabin started to look like a set of a harrow movie with whitish bluish glow....

 

[treilley]

One of our forum members, Maine Sail, has done some very scientific research on LEDs backed by personal experience. See his work here:

http://sbo.sailboatowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103101&highlight=sensibulbs

 

[Loren Beach]

Plan B might be to save up for a new fixture or two with all the designing and testing done already...
http://www.alpenglowlights.com/

Their Selection Guide has a lot of information, as well.

Nice lights. Not cheap, but... really nice. I have yet to meet an unhappy user of their fixtures.

Loren

 

[Maine Sail]

Folks,
what provides the best "warmth" as far as color temperature goes

Sensibulb is currently the warmest, hands down. Also it's the brightest one Practical Sailor tested at 150 Lumens. It was also the warmest bulb I tested and the brightest and had the widest beam. One other very important point is that the Sensibulb does not interfere with radios..

There's a lot of snake oil in LED technology these days and it is truly a buyer beware market.

 

[Mindscape]

Alpenglow

The company that Loren mentioned, Alpenglow, makes an excellent LED reading light. I've installed one in our vberth for reading and the light has excelent qualities. They are expensive, no doubt about it. I had previously installed one of their floresents and have been very pleased with it as a general cabin light, and it looks excellent as a side benifit, again expensive but worth it in the end.

I've also installed the Dr. LED lights for my running lights (Aqua Siganl 25 fixtures), comparativly they are as bright or brighter that the bulbs they replaced and draw significatnly less. My less than scientific tests show that now of these lights has had any impact on my radios or GPS signals (i.e. I've looked for but not noticed any effect).

Overall I'm pretty happy with my LED choices so far and their performance. I must say I'm many more $$ into this than I had hoped, but my current draw is way down and that was the point.

 

[rwthomas1]

A second vote for Sensibulb from SailorsSolutions. Indistinguishable from incandescent, actually brighter in my case. Very simple plug in bayonet adaptors. So far beyond the crap at autoparts places, and anything else I have tried that you have to see it for yourself. RT

 

[simdim]

Thank you everybody for the info. From all I see the trend is moving towards surface mounted (SMD) LED for interior lighting. It also appears that there is higher lumen output with lower temperature color.
I will give one of this a try http://www.lunasealighting.com/spec_sheets/LLB-266W-21-00.pdf
Does anyone remember if E29 (but I would guess most of E-boats square interior lights are the same) uses BA15S or BA15D?

 

[tadslc]

Earlier this year I started replacing interior bulbs with LED and found the Sensibulb's were by far the most natural replacements available.

Drop me an email and I'll send you a comparison I did of various LED's. I've wanted to get this posted on the forum but just haven't taken the time to figure out how.

tbailey@southernlabel.com

 

[rwthomas1]

The problem I see with the Lunasea product is the side-firing LED's. They are pretty pointless unless there is a reflector and its in the correct position. The Sensibulbs with socket adaptor will allow rotation, and also horizontal mounting inside existing fixtures. All the light is projected out that way and none wasted on reflectors. Trust me, they work that well. Almost all my interior lights have been converted to Sensibulbs. RT

 

[treilley]

Simon, I am wondering where you got the recommendation for Lunasea? The Sensibulbs really are the best you can get. If you are looking for a cheap replacement they are much easier to find because there are so many out there. All the work and expense has been done by Maine Sail to demonstrate why they are better. They also have an awesome money back guarantee that includes shipping.

Buy one Lunasea and one Sensibulb. If the Lunasea is better then you simply return the Sensibulb with no out of pocket expense. If the Sensibulb is better the most you lose is the cost of the Lunasea(about $15 assumming they do not allow returns).

 

[Maine Sail]

LunaSea

The problem I see with the Lunasea product is the side-firing LED's. They are pretty pointless unless there is a reflector and its in the correct position. The Sensibulbs with socket adaptor will allow rotation, and also horizontal mounting inside existing fixtures. All the light is projected out that way and none wasted on reflectors. Trust me, they work that well. Almost all my interior lights have been converted to Sensibulbs. RT

The LunaSeas are likely no different than the Chinese made stuff you can get from any of the eBay vendors or sub par LED suppliers like SuperBrite LED.

As I said above LED's are largely snake oil these days and there are far to many unscrupulous vendors trying to snatch your money and give you a poor quality product in return.

If those bulbs were top quality they would make a big deal out of the constant current power supply and the top quality "binned" emitters they use. Many of these bulbs are knock offs of US designed LED's sold by reputable companies like Marine Beam but bear NO performance resemblance.

Can you tell these two bulbs apart? While they may look identical they DO NOT perform the same! One uses orphaned LED emitters (read CHEAP) and one uses top quality "binned" emitters that sell for up to 20 times the price of an orphaned emitter. LED's using orphaned emitters rarely last as long due to varying currents of each emitter, temps etc. and also rarely if ever have the warmth or beam width you'd expect.

 

[simdim]

Talking about peer pressure
But seriously folks on this forum had never gave me bad advise and steered me away from wrong decisions - so one sensibulb is on it's way to be tested and approved by admirals critical eyes.

 

[treilley]

Good move Simon. I knew we could convince you. Now we can teach you the secret handshake!

 

[ted_reshetiloff]

Sensibulb festoons?

 

[treilley]

They do not have any yet. An adapter would not be hard to make. I am working on one. If it does not work out, I will change all my fixtures over to G4 for about $3.50 a pop.

 

[tadslc]

It shouldn't be too hard to change out to the G4 connectors. I bought a 10-pk off eBay before I ended up replacing most of my round dome lights. The new dome lights came with the G4 connectors already but I still had to do a little filing to get the Sensi-bulb to fit.

 

[treilley]

Thanks Simon. The trick will be to see if it will all fit in the existing dome lights. I think because they are festoon they have a lower profile than standard G4 type fixtures.

I did receive an edison to G4 adapter today. I have 2 cheapie brass lamps I bought at Lowes that use 20watt bulbs. I only run those on special occasions but I would love to use a sensibulb. They are more for lighting warmth than output. My boat only has the reading type lights and the domes under the decks so the uper section of my cabin is always dark. These brass fixtures spread a nice warm light across the ceiling.