Any specific brand/model recomendations? Bob PDQ 36 Peace -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ken James Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 3:26 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] led masthead lights..
'bella wrote: > Anyone installed one... how well did it do.. as bright as the hype > said it would be.. cost? You should add the following considerations to your questions; how efficient is it, (most cheap lights use inefficient supply circuits to power the leds, and if a light is twice as efficient it can save a lot of solar/wind genny electricity) does it use colored, not white light leds as colored leds loose almost no light through filters and will produce the proper colors through the filters while white light leds often will not, (not even addressing the color sector overlap such a design produces), does it have sufficient overvoltage and surge protection to last, many cheap lights do not and if the light is not rated to at least 15.5 volts continuous it is not enough, does the light have the ability to produce proper color sectors, some cheap Chinese made lights use only bare leds and no screens or optics which will result in a dangerous light mixing situation where other vessels will not know what you are or what your heading is, and does it produce light with enough vertical spread, some led lights use only 30 degree leds while the emission pattern from such a light should have at least a 70 deg vert. spread. Most are now good to low enough voltages (should work well down to at least ten volts) and some are bi-polar which makes them easy to install. Many also now are encased, which helps protect them from moisture. It is worth the extra cost to get a light that will last and perform as it is supposed to. Not all will do so. The more expensive models will fulfill all the above, others won't. As far as brightness is concerned, leds can be much brighter than a regular bulb now, witness the many very bright car taillights that use them and even some car headlights now, the led models are rated as much brighter than normal headlights.-Ken _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
