led
Fenix LED Flashlight
Submitted by cac on Mon, 2007-04-16 13:20OK, not strictly boat related, but a recommendation based on my own experience...
But a decent flashlight and carry it... all the time. You would not believe how handy it is. Looking behind things, under things, around things... it seems the more you have it handy, the more often you find a need to use it.
If you do decide to carry a light, I would recommend spending a little more (but not a ton) and buy a decent LED light that will last. The LED's now are bright, last "forever" and won't die when (not if) you drop the light.
I've most recently been carrying a Fenix L1T that I bought from Fenix-store.com (who I also recommend). I like a belt holster, but this is certainly small enough for your pocket. Its two levels of brightness (I rarely use the low level) and although not a extremely long distance throw, its certainly adequate for most of what I do...
Its small, runs on a single AA which you can find anywhere, and goes a LONG time of intermittant use.
If you decide to get into the flashlight world, you can feed your addiction (no, you're not the only one that likes these things) at Candle Power Forums.
As usual, no association except as a satisfied customer!
Sea Hawk LED lights
Submitted by cac on Tue, 2010-12-28 13:58DIY Boat Owner is covering the Sea Hawk LED. Another marine LED application that seems to be working well for some.
I find more and more places that LED's are getting cheap enough to consider, and they usually work well. I live by an LED flashlight, that's for sure :-)
Coolstrip LED lighting
Submitted by cac on Sun, 2010-05-09 21:44A UK supplier of various LED lighting. Got some interesting stuff that might work on a boat, canal boat, etc.
AlpenGlow
Submitted by cac on Thu, 2010-01-21 21:48AlpenGlow was started by some folks that started out building their own lights, and now making them for commercial sale. Looks like some nice products. LED's are the way to go for many things, in my opinion. The low power draw, low maintenance and long lasting qualities are all important in the marine environment.
Home Made Marine LED Lighting fixtures
Submitted by cac on Tue, 2007-05-01 22:40The entire use of LED lighting is something I've had on my plate to cover more in depth on these pages... good light output, low power draw, long life, vibration resistance, low heat production, easy to run from DC... all good things on a boat. The only other real competition in power draw are compact fluorescents and they require more space and AC power (at least all I'm aware of).
Anyway, the ladies over at The Big Sailboat Project have created their own affordable design for LED lighting onboard. Check out this link for details. They are using LED's sourced from HB Electronic Components from China which they had apparently good luck with and got a great price. Might be worth checking out if you are shopping for those types of components.
Note that they have recently changed the domain name of their main page... I've updated the links from this site, but if you have it in your bookmarks, you might want to double check.
