Boating is a pastime that involves much more than just spending time on the water enjoying your vessel. Much of the fun for boaters also comes from the constant modification and upgrading of their vessels in a quest to improve performance as well as functionality and appearance. Much in the same way a hot rodder is endlessly tweaking his latest project car, boaters spend countless hours and dollars adding and upgrading equipment. One of the most common targets of all this attention from boaters is their electrical systems. Because all the power onboard has to be self generated while away from the dock, making sure power is being produced and used as efficiently as possible is a high priority. And nowhere is there more potential to improve onboard efficiency than with the boats lighting systems.
In the past a boaters top options for improving the performance of their onboard power systems included more powerful alternators for engine driven systems, bigger generators, and larger battery banks. As can be imagined, these are typically expensive upgrades and regardless of how they are performed, result in the use of larger amounts of fuel. Since they require more fuel to produce more power, the cost of producing this greater amount of electrical power also increases. While there are some other options such as solar and wind powered generating systems that do not require the use of fuel, these systems are typically very limited in the amount of power they can provide and are themselves costly to purchase and install as well. Solar power is dependent upon copious amounts of direct sunlight for the most effective operation and the size of the panels needed is limited by the available space onboard a typical boat. Wind power is likewise dependent upon a steady wind to produce adequate power for replenishing battery banks and is like solar panels, limited in the size of turbine that can be used onboard a vessel.
In the last several years a more effective alternative to producing more power has become available that rather than address the amount of power provided, instead greatly improves the efficiency of the one of the most inefficient electrically power systems onboard a boat, specifically lighting. On most boats lighting is considered something of a luxury that aside from rule mandated navigational lighting, is used sparingly and only as needed in order to reduce the load it places on power reserves. Even a single modest 50 watt halogen spreader light can consume prodigious amounts of current, usually around 4.5 amps per hour, and when operating multiple lights on a boat of modest size, will deplete a significant portion of a battery banks reserves within a few hours. If you consider cockpit and cabin lighting, lighting used for deck and walkway illumination, and of course the navigation lights, on an average sized cruiser the current draw from the entire lighting system can easily surpass 30 amps per hour. This kind of inefficiency has led to boaters taking measures such as increasing onboard power production as noted earlier and even more commonly, simply rationing and limiting the use of onboard lighting.
The best way to improve the efficiency of onboard lighting is to reduce the amount of power it consumes. The first natural inclination here would be to assume switching to lower wattage lamps would accomplish this feat. While it would indeed reduce the total power consumed, you would then be dealing with an overall reduction in the amount of illumination produced, which would be significant and detrimental. The other option would be to switch to more a more efficient type of lamp, and this indeed a very viable solution. The only issue here is to find a lamp capable of producing the efficiency needed, without compromising practicality or lamp output and lighting quality. HID lamps like metal halide do offer some potential, however they are not practical for every application. For instance, upgrading a halogen spotlight to HID is indeed an effective alternative, however, HID is very impractical for cabin or cockpit illumination due to their need for ballasts, high heat output, and extreme intensity. Fluorescent lamps are likewise impractical as they are not well suited to compact sized fixtures, produce limited output with a diffused beam pattern making them unsuitable spotlighting applications, and likewise also require ballasts.
Fortunately, a final alternative is available in the form of solid state lighting, otherwise known as LEDs. LEDs powerful enough and of high enough quality for boating use have only been around for the last several years. Prior to that, although they were highly efficient, their light output and color quality left a lot to be desired. This is no longer the case and it is possible now to replace every outdated incandescent and halogen bulb onboard with a state of the art LED fixture that will provide incredible efficiency with light output that surpasses them in both lumens and color quality.
A 50 watt halogen spreader light produces around 750 lumens of light output while drawing about 4.5 amps of power. For comparison, a 12 watt LED spreader light can produce approximately 800 lumens of whiter and more evenly distributed light while pulling less than 2 amps of power. Power & MotorYacht Magazine recently retrofitted a 36 foot cruisers’ 35 small halogen interior lights with LEDs. Before this installation these halogens pulled over 24 amps of power. After installation that power consumption dropped to less than 8 amps, yet the lighting system still produced slightly higher illuminance using the LEDs!
It is now possible to replace cabin, cockpit, deck, and even search and spotlight fixtures with LEDs thanks to the huge variety of LED boat lights now available. Boaters can also upgrade their navigational fixtures as well, allowing them to make a complete conversion and run more lights for longer periods and use less fuel while doing. And perhaps the most amazing part of all this is the fact that there is no need to change existing wiring, no need for a special transformers or hardware, and the LEDs will last for up to 10 years before they require replacing. This kind of performance is uncommon and offers boater an opportunity to improve the performance and reliability of their vessel while saving money in the long run. Before you consider adding more batteries or a larger genset, consider the value of upgrading your lighting system to LEDs first. You’ll be glad you did.
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