I have been keeping track of our energy use on board our vessel as we were at anchor recently and was surprised to discover just how much power a normal incandescent light bulb pulls. Our mast light pulled 2 amps while lit, drawing a total of 18 amp hours on any given evening.

The Edison bulb that has lit up our boats since 1879 is formally on its way out. The inefficient incandescent, which loses almost all of its power as heat, has fallen in disfavor. Early in 2012, American residents will not be able to purchase one even if they desired to. The government is going to prohibit their manufacture to save energy. The foremost substitute for the incandescent bulb is the higher-efficiency fluorescent light bulb. The fluorescent, though, has its own issues, primarily the existence of toxic mercury in the design and a weird color that a lot of individuals find objectionable.

Now enter the LED, or light-emitting diode. LEDs have been around for a good number of years. A good number of issues have prevented companies from producing them in ordinary, replacement-size bulb shape, primarily the cost to the user. However in the last few years, these LED replacement light bulbs have grown to be much more common and costs have dropped.

How to define LED Illumination? LED means "light-emitting diode." LED lights are extremely minute semiconductor diodes that are able to make illumination. The light that is created by any given LED can be of a mixture of colors. The tint of the illumination that is produced by an LED light is dependent on the element that is utilized to construct the semiconductor. You will find a lot of different varieties of LEDs, including tiny ones, in addition to high-powered LEDs and multicolor varieties.

How Do LED Lights Function? LED lights function very similar to standard light bulbs aside from the reality that LEDs are a good deal smaller and include no filament. As an alternative to a filament, an LED generates light using the movement of electricity along the pathway of its semiconductor. As the electrons flow across the semiconductor, they create radiation which turns into light which people can observe.

What Are LED Marine Functions?

There is an almost unlimited amount of uses for LED lights, a number of which have previously been identified and others that are currently being checked out. They illuminate VHF radios, chart plotters, and stereos and they nowadays tell you when you have a voice mail on your smart phone. You can discover LED lights utilized for submerged lighting on high-end sportfisherman and megayachts. But so far as boat interior and exterior lighting goes, LEDs have never really taken off. But this will change soon.

Energy Efficiency

First, there is the lower energy use. The LED method of creating visible light loses much less energy to heat than do other lighting technologies. It will be noticeably more efficient than the filament technique utilized in incandescent bulbs -- about 85 percent more economical; and it's even around 5 percent more effective than the fluorescent tube. But energy-efficiency is only part of it; the other part is durability of the LED bulbs. You can go twenty years without needing to change an LED light bulb. A average incandescent bulb lasts about 750 hours; an LED lasts 30,000 hours and some LED bulbs last up to 50,000 hours.

I mentioned that my masthead light drew 18 amp hours when illuminated while on the hook. I replaced the bulbs with 2 LEDs that drew barely .001 amps each. The total sum of energy utilization changed from 18 amp hours to .018 amp hours. Now that's a sizeable saving and the reality that I can replace those amp hours from the sun, makes it even better!

Cost Issues

The longevity of the bulbs is an attractive feature but you also must consider cost. A 60-watt LED substitute light bulb runs in the region of $100, and even the lower-output variations, utilized for things like mast lights, will cost between $30 and $40. That's in comparison to a $1 incandescent light bulb.

But the reality is, even at high costs for a single bulb, LEDs will turn out saving money in the long run, for the reason that you only need one for the life of your yacht and you pay out less money on replacement bulbs. But the upfront charge is nonetheless pretty extreme. To sum it up, changing the standard light bulbs on board your yacht with LED light bulbs may well be a prudent expenditure if your chief concern is power use.