Why Upgrade Your Boat Lighting to LEDs?

If you do any amount of boating at night, it’s a given that you are going to have to put more than a cursory amount of thought into your exterior lighting systems. Of course, navigational lighting is always the highest priority, and anything you can do to improve its reliability and performance is worthwhile. All too often, boaters do little more than turn on their navigation lights and do a cursory check to make sure they’re illuminated, and replace a bulb or two if needed. There are too few boaters who take the time to make sure navigation lights are properly visible when viewed from afar and that they are visible for the minimum distances required by Coast Guard regulations. The only way to do this with any certainty is to observe your boat from the vantage point of another boat, so this is understandable. However, boat owners can ensure their navigation lights meet regulations, and more importantly, are providing the maximum amount of performance possible by upgrading to LED equipped navigation lights. Additionally, all exterior lighting can benefit from such an upgrade, and this is what we are going to address.

Up until a few years ago, the idea of switching a boats exterior lighting to LEDs was met with some skepticism and even trepidation by many boaters. When LED boat lights first began appearing on the markets, they had yet to really be perfected and were poorly matched to the applications they were being marketed for. They produced light that many found simply too cold for practical use, and quality was a hit or miss affair as there were quite a few less than reputable manufacturers attempting to get on the LED bandwagon and flooding markets with cheap and inferior grade LEDs. This caused many boaters to form a poor opinion of LEDs as they found their performance lacking in too many key areas. However, the LED industry has improved by leaps and bounds in the last several years, and reputable manufacturers have managed to gain the upper hand as their products although somewhat pricier, deliver the promised performance that the cheaper low grade LEDs from unproven manufacturers simply cannot match.

For navigational lighting, boaters are now able to choose from a wide variety of offerings from well respected manufacturers who use LEDs produced by companies such as Cree™ in their lighting products. Built with quality and performance in mind, LED navigation lights provide performance that traditional incandescent bulb equipped navigation lights simply cannot compare to. First and foremost, LEDs are far more efficient than incandescent bulbs, which means that by switching to LED navigation lights you’ll instantly reduce the power drain on your battery banks. LEDs are also far more durable, which considering that navigation lights are often exposed to the worst conditions because they are often closest to the waterline, is a huge plus. They can withstand the pounding of waves and vibration that normally makes short work of the weak filament in an incandescent lamp. From a performance standpoint, LED navigation lights really shine due to their directional nature and high output versus low power requirements, and their ability to natively produce colored light without the need for colored lenses or filters.

LEDs produce light through a wholly different process than incandescent bulbs. Rather than heat a filament, LEDs pass electricity through semi-conducting material, which in turn causes this material to emit energy in the form of photons, more commonly known as light. The neat thing about this process in LEDs is that the type of light produced can be manipulated by using different coatings and materials with the semi-conductor. In essence, LED manufacturers can cause an LED to produce light of different colors simply by changing the type of material or coatings used with the LEDs. As a result, all of the light energy produced by the LED is emitted within a certain color wavelength, meaning LEDs do not need lenses or filters to produce colored light, which allows all of the light produced to be radiated outwards. This is important for navigational lighting, as traditional navigation lights must be colored according to their placement, and in order to produce colored light with an incandescent bulb, lenses or filters must be used. Since lenses and filters block a lot of the bulbs radiated light output, thus greatly reducing the total output of a traditional bulb, they effectively reduce how bright the lamp appears. The bottom line here is that with LED navigation lights, less energy is used, yet they are brighter and more intense. This means your LED navigation lighting will be more easily visible to other boaters and at greater distances.

As well as navigation lighting, other exterior lighting fixtures on a boat can benefit from an upgrade to LEDs as well. Anchor lights for example are a common source of headaches for many sailboat owners. Anytime you are anchored at night, an anchor light is a must. However, traditional incandescent anchor lights are normally mounted high on the mast and thus difficult to get to should they burn out and need replacing. Additionally, anchor lights often are run for extended periods, which can often result in severely depleted power supplies. Many sailboat owners are realizing great improvements by switching to an LED anchor light. These LED anchor lights draw very little power, often less than a quarter the amount of an incandescent, and can operate for several years before needing replacement. Add in that they are more easily visible to other boaters and the benefits become pretty hard to ignore. An anchor light that won’t drain batteries, won’t need replacing for years, and can improve safety? What’s not to like?

The potential for improvement in a boats lighting system is only limited by the boat owner’s motivation. Spreader lights, spotlights, cockpit lighting, cabin lights, engine room lights, in fact anywhere a light fixture is present, is a prime candidate for an LED equipped fixture. With a full upgrade to LEDs, it is possible to cut the amount of power used for lighting by up three quarters. This means less money spent on fuel for powering generators and running engines to keep batteries topped off, and more time spent just enjoying time on the water. Add in the improvements to safety and maintenance requirements, and it’s pretty easy to see that an upgrade to LEDs is not only practical, but good sense.