Gettin’ the LED in

Not at all like Gettin’ The LED Out…

On the list of the many things to fix on our boat were the lights. Not so much the fixtures themselves as most are original and lovely and very boaty.

Our problem was with the light bulbs. More than once we ended up with burnt fingers from turning them off after they had been on for a while. Those incandescent light bulbs get hot! Plus they kept burning out and were a PITA to replace (think lots of tiny screws and things that don’t want to play well with the effects of gravity).

My Better Half had purchased an LED bulb for his work light (which has been immeasurably handy for peering into dark places!). We were both so impressed that it can be on for hours and hours and the bulb is just slightly warm to the touch.

After our second batch of incandescents started to burn out we decided to take the plunge and purchase LED bulbs for the whole boat.

It weren’t cheap.

We found a place called marinebeam.com which is like an online lighting wonderland and had every single type of bulb needed (that’s 3 different types, if you’re interested), plus a replacement light fixture for our head (waterproof to accommodate that eventual shower!), and a replacement fixture for the port side trunk berth so everything will be matchy-matchy.

The result of all those new bulbs? A significant savings in amperage.

Where before one incandescent bulb ≈ 1 amp we can run every light on our entire boat at under 2 amps. Significant.  Plus the bulbs last 20 years so we will save money in replacement costs as well as our significant energy savings.

Oh, and no more burned fingers!