Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

I'm with Brian ...

I've replaced my running lights (under sail, not power) to LED. My anchor light is LED (OGM, and BTW, I've seen complaints here about OGM, but I have nothing but great things to say about them. I think their light is terrific, I did have one issue with interference, probably my issue, but they sent me a brand new light no charge). All our courtesy lights are Imtra LED's, which we use all the time, as well as my NAV station light. But that's it for now. I have the Alpenglows, which I really like and they consume way less than others. But for the Galley and other reading lights, i will wait until the price comes down a bit and a few more choices. In the meantime, we will simply continue our careful electrical conservation on board. $35 for a light bulb ?!?! At the end of the day, there is no substitute for minimizing electrical needs on a boat, especially when we are at anchor. We don't have computers & instruments running all day, we seem to easily stay well under 100Ah/day, in the Tropics, with a Frig under 40 degrees and small freezer. On Passage, we don't use the Pilot that much, we don't use a computer for navigation, the radar might be on at night for 5 minutes or so every 30 to 60 minutes, it is not left on, the chartplotters come on & off or stay on very low intensity, the masthead is the OGM LED TriColor, we don't leave lights on that are not needed, and so on. I'm really not sure LED's for reading and Galley would save us all that much, as long as we stick to the above, which seems to balance our needs and power sources nicely.

Cheers, John

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