When you hear the term “LED lights,” your first vision may be a plethora of bright white, blue, and other-colored lights illuminating the outside of a boat and even the water beneath the hull. Like a scene out of a science-fiction movie, eh? But there is a practical side to Light-Emitting Diodes or LEDs that makes them attractive for use in a boat’s interior.

This spring Will Keene, president of marine equipment manufacturer Edson International (www.edsonmarine.com) in New Bedford, Massachusetts, upgraded the lights on his 1985 Grand Banks 42, and I got to watch the process to replace the interior lights aboard his boat with LEDs, including an upgraded dimmer system in the saloon.

One of the primary reasons for the upgrade is that Keene likes to spend his nights anchored in secluded coves. The LEDs will save Keene battery power because they use only about a quarter of the juice required to power the old incandescent lights. The lights Keene chose use less than 5.0 watts, and have a 50,000-hour lifetime plus a five-year warranty.

In addition to being more efficient, LEDs are safer. To resist water intrusion each light has a sealed housing. Additionally, a quality LED light has a built-in driver with integrated current regulation to assure that each LED is being powered appropriately regardless of input voltage. LEDs need ambient air around the back of the housing to help keep them cool. Also, LEDs take up less space than old-school automotive-style bulbs, so there should be plenty of space in the same framework.

For the swap, Keene selected 15 of the Warm White color and a single Warm Red at the helm station to preserve night vision. Total cost for the lights, LED dimmer modules, Vimar switches, frames, and an LED engine-room kit was $3,334.90.

Here’s how Keene’s boat was upgraded. Single two-light fixtures in the forward and aft staterooms and accompanying heads were installed, while four assemblies with dimmers were replaced in the saloon. Because each LED had its own integrated circuit board,  a matched dimmer and two additional wires were used between the dimmers and the lights. To comply with American Boat and Yacht Council guidelines, lighting engineer Mike Moriarty made all connections with crimped heat-shrink quick-disconnect terminals from Ancor Marine.

The two-man crew spent about six hours removing the old fixtures and the valances that Grand Banks had installed to hide the original wiring. When I arrived at the boat, there were wires hanging down from all the openings awaiting the upgrade. Keene was fortunate because Grand Banks hid a little extra wire above the headliner and it was found in good shape. Fishing new wires throughout the boat would have made the job much more difficult.

To keep the Grand Banks look, Keene retained the original teak frame surrounding the old lights and covered each plastic lens with birdseye maple veneer, finishing it with a few coats of polyurethane. The lens would have been too difficult to remove so the veneer was applied over it. To help maintain rigidity and keep the lens from shattering or chipping when it was cut for the new lights, Keene applied a teak backing plate bonded with West Systems epoxy.

In the staterooms, the LED upgrade was easy. All that had to be done was connect the two wires on each light to those hanging from the opening. For the dimmer and added red light on the starboard side of the saloon, he had to run three new wires from the switch next to the helm entryway up behind the vertical valance to where the headliner met the inner wall. He used square plastic wiring races to run the new wires. The races were hidden outboard of the boat’s original valances. On the port side, most of the initial labor was dedicated to removing trim panels and valances to run the extra wire needed for the dimmer system.

Dimmer units were secured with screws to the framework above the headliner for the forward lights on each circuit with extra wires run from the dimmer aft to the second set of lights on both sides. Adhesive-backed tiewrap anchors hold the wires in place. With wires and dimmers installed, he used the original fastening hardware for the lenses and snapped them back into place. After checking his wiring, he installed the switches. Now Keene’s boat has a lighting system that can set the proper mood and use significantly

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Novel Energy Lighting supplies LED GU10 and LED MR16 bulbs for boats, yachts, and ships around the world. Please call us for a quote today:+44 (0)208-540-8287, or email us at: sales@novelenergylighting.

Shuttla

www.novelenergylighting.com