LED Lights

[shrew]

I just finished an LED upgrade project and thought this info. might be interesting. I decided to upgrade to LED's because they use far less power and have significantly longer duty cycles. Initially I was having issues finding the right LED light. I have a combination of puck and recessed lights in the cabin. The overall diameter is slightly different between the two lights and I wanted to find an LED replacement that had an overall diameter equal to, but preferebly slightly larger than that of the original lights so avoid the tell-tale 'ring' in the headliner left by the original OEM lights.
Either the diameter of replacements lights was too small, or in teh case of the recessed lights, many didn't find the existing hole. Sure I could drill and drill or drememl a new hole (ever try to use a hole saw on an existing hole? Not fun).

I managed to find www.SWEGO.com. It appears they are the manufacturers of the original lights in my 97 Maxum. even better, they sell Direct LED replacement bulbs!!

http://www.swego.com/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=59

These bulbs will fit any G4 bulb. Now I say that with a caveat. They may not fit inside of ALL lights that use a G4 bulb. They make both back pin and side pin bulbs. They come in Blue, Red, or WHITE.

Here is a link to their LED UPgrade/replcaement guide:

http://www.swego.com/store/pc/catalog/bayliner_maxum_meridian_crossreference_bulbs_sw.pd f


This is the exact puck lihgt in my cabin:

http://www.swego.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=42&idproduct=382


This is the exact recessed light in my cabin:

http://www.swego.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=44&idproduct=115

They not only sell the replacement lights. They sell them in LED as well. However, if you already have all your lights, then just buy the replacement bulbs and swap them out with your existing lights. They claim the lights will work in any light with a G4 bulb, provided the LED bulb will actually fit in the light fixture. The models I posted above fit perfectly, but then the LED's were designed specifically for those lights.

The light is a bit brighter than a conventional halgogen bulb, but not much. the light is very warm. you'd have a hard time telling the lights were LED's if you weren't told. The LED's will cut power consumption by lights by 1/2.

I bought some replacement reading lights for the v berth and mid-cabin as well. Well worth considering if you spend a lot of nights out on the hook.

[dronthelake]

Made the decision to lower my power consumption and replaced all 36 ceiling (G4B-CWHP10-DAC cool white), 11 courtesy (WLED-NW5 natural white), 11 engine gauges (WLED-NW5 natural white) and 1 water tank level (WLED-NW5 red) gauge lights with LEDS. I also replaced 10 of the 11 courtesy lights with exact replacements found on Ebay for $9.00 each.

I bought a couple cool white and a couple warm white to test. We went with the cool white. We love it, prefering the bright white over the yellow tint of the warm white. I also find it easier to read with the whiter light. Looks great at night.

As soon as we decide what color LED to get we'll replace all the interior rope light.

[biggerseagar]

Hey thanks for the info. Always wanted to know where to get these lights and now I know!

Roger

[Phillbo]

Going to do the swap as well.... Does anyone know if I want item 1 or 3 on the page :

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=LED+G4+Bulb+%28Side+pin%29


Is 240 lumen too bright ?

[ss3964spd]

I also just ordered replacement LED's. Got mine from Superbright LED's. http://www.superbrightleds.com/

Like their site because the have the measurements for each of their "bulbs" so you can compare to the old one and also to what will fit into the fixture. Have not received them yet - just ordered on Friday.

Biggest disappointment with these sites is they don't seem to have any direct light oputput comparisons for their replacement LED against a standard incandescent bulb so I ordered several different sizes for each fixture to see how well they work (thankfully I don't need many).

I opted for red LED's for the deck courtesy lights (they do not attract bugs and don't kill night vision). Am not replacing the gauge or nav bulbs as they only time those are on is when the engine is running - though I may end up doing the gauge bulbs in red as those do kill night vision and are not dimmable.

Dan