[C320-list] Festoon Lighting

[Warren Updike]

We replaced our cabin festoon bulbs with LEDs from marinebeam.com 7 years ago. They were all 42mm. We put cool white (90 lumens) in the 2 aft corners for reading positions, and warm white (72 lumens) in the rest. We replaced the fixtures in the aft cabin with new LED fixtures. We have been very happy with this. Together with the LED anchor light current consumption is drastically reduced. 7 years is a long time and I'm sure there is lots more competition today, and even technology improvements like higher lumen output. I was sold at the time after reading MarineBeam's Technical page and especially the piece on constant-current issue at  store.marinebeam.com/constant-current-1. MarineBeam is a supplier of LED bulbs to Sailorssolutions.com (note all 4 S's in the URL)

Christian, if you have the same cabin fixtures we do (you probably do,) I don't think the 9-LED will fit them. The lumens on our bulbs were less than those from lunasealighting; but, we are satisfied with the amount of light. I don't think you'll be unhappy with the 107 lumen cool white LEDs. 

As for using silicone grease, I'm thinking that is dielectric not conductive. I use a conductive grease for such connections. Either way works. 

Warren and Pattie Updike
1994 C320 "Warr de Mar" #62
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

-----Original Message-----
From: Christian [mailto:ccaper at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2017 1:35 PM
To: C320-List at catalina320.com
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Festoon Lighting

David,
I am looking to place an order this week for some LED lights of this type
made from a company called LunaSea lighting.

My current festoon bulbs measure 43mm.  The LunaSea LED bulbs are 42mm, I
think they should fit.

I am looking at these:
http://www.lunasealighting.com/products/detail/pointed-festoon-9-led-light-bulb-42mm/led-replacement-bulbs

Link contains a spec sheet pdf, and by their measurements and mine, they
should fit.  The warm white rates at 145 lumens.  I am looking at putting
warm white in the port sides cabin lights, and the red in the two center
cabin lights.

Should this model be too wide, I'll be looking at this model, but it drops
the lumens of the warm white down to 97 lumens.
http://www.lunasealighting.com/products/detail/pointed-festoon-6-led-light-bulb-42mm/led-replacement-bulbs

Both are marine rated, and claim to not introduce any RF interference.
Looking at some of my current incandescent, the bulb contacts are pretty
corroded, so I'll be putting some silicon grease on the new LEDs.

I'll most likely be ordering the LunaSea lights from
https://www.fisheriessupply.com/, just trying figure out my order.  Can
report back after I try them.

if anyone else has other suggestions of this bulb type before I place my
order, I'm all ears too.

Christian Caperton
1994 C320 "Canuck" #138
Monroe Harbor, Chicago, IL