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Marine LED Lighting

Hope you find this article on "Marine LED Lighting" written by our LED expert useful.
Marine LED lighting is a very recent technological concept. The first LED anchor light was produced as late as 1998 by Deep Creek Design, Inc. However, several other companies have got into the fray by now, and LED lights are fast replacing conventional lighting in the marine industry. This should not come as a surprise, considering that LED lights offer several advantages over incandescent bulbs.

Energy Efficiency

Marine LED lighting is a lot more energy efficient than conventional marine lights. The amount of heat energy wasted is minimal, and the overall energy consumed is much less. As a result, battery powered LED lights last much longer than incandescent bulbs, once they are charged, and LED lights that depend on a vessel’s electrical system also use much less power. Marine LED lights are also significantly brighter than traditional bulbs.

Safer to Use and Durable

The other advantage of Marine LED lighting is that it does not heat up nearly as much as conventional marine lights. Consequently, the risk of burn injuries is nullified. Marine lights don’t emit UV rays either, so there is no risk of the paint on the vessel getting damaged. However, these aren’t the only reasons why LED´s are fast replacing incandescent bulbs. The other major factor is durability. LED lights are much hardier and they withstand impact and vibration much better than regular lamps. This is a crucial advantage in the waters and ensures a longer life-span of your entire lighting system.

The Challenges

The application of LED lighting to marine purposes took long because using LED´s in the water posed some serious challenges. The first problem involved optical considerations, since LED´s emit a different quality of white light than regular bulbs. When the white light emitted by LED´s passes through color filters, it produces color shifting and dimming. To counter this, certain adjustments were required. Besides, it was necessary to make sure that the light emitted by the LED´s was recognized by the automatic light sensing equipment that is used out at sea.

Withstanding the Waters

The other challenge to developing this technology was the corrosive atmosphere that the waters present. Marine LED lighting has to be resistant to submersion, splashing on the waters, spray from the sea as well as UV light and ice. After some experimentation, it was found that the most effective materials to protect sensitive equipment were plastics like Buterate and Lexan.

Meeting Naval Requirements

Before installing an LED lighting system on your boat, you need to make sure that it meets the naval requirements. For example, the light’s intensity should correspond to the length of the vessel. Additionally, sidelights need to be clearly visible within a mile, and the masthead lights till a distance of two miles.

The good news is that by now the marine LED lighting technology is quite advanced and there is a lot of choices available in LED light systems for marine applications. It will be no surprise if, in the near future, LED light systems completely replace traditional incandescent bulbs in the marine industry.