LED and Solar Lighting

DawnTreader · Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:07 pm Post subject: LED and Solar Lighting

Having recently purchased a 22-foot C-Dory Cruiser I have several questions about lighting that I am hopeful someone can answer.

1. Does anyone know of a company (marine suppler) who sells a “Perko” anchor light replacement pole (any length) which has a 3-prong attachment?
2. Does anyone know of a company who sells a solar powered LED anchor light that will stay lit all night long (10 hours)?
3. Can you simply replace existing 12 v bulbs with LED 12-volt bulbs?
4. Can anyone recommend a small solar panel designed to charge two 12-volt batteries?

I look forward to helpful replies.

DT (DawnTreader)
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thataway · Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:45 pm Post subject:

The answer to your questions is rather complex, because there are no "pat answers"

PERKO light pole--do you want just the pole, or a fitting with a LED light at the top? Do you want to leave this in place, fold it down, or take it out as the old Perko fitting? Another question you might ask, is there a LED light fitting which fits the PERKO fitting--and to that the answer is yes. (But).

I do not know of any solar powered light which will recharge a LED light source which is bright enough to fulfill CG standards (Although the anchor light is only required to be seen at 2 Nautical miles, the forward steaming light has to be visible for 3 nauticatical miles. In our size boats the anchor light and forward steaming light are combined in one fitting (some have two bulbs, and some one.)

See the current thread on LED bulb replacement--it answers several of your questions.

Can you replace 12 incentascant bulbs with LED bulbs, "yes"--See Dr LED But some bulbs will cause interference on your VHF radio, and you must take that into consideration.

"Small" solar panel to charge two 12 volt bulbs. Sure, there are many. You need the panel, the fittings and proper wire, fuses and a controller to be sure the battery has proper voltage, and no feed back into the panel at night. How much are the batteries drawn down each 24 hour period--that will determine what the size (wattage) of the solar panels will be. Are the panels in full sun all day, or partial shading? Where are the panels to be mounted. To just "maintain" batteries, I have used several of the 30 watt self contained (diode to prevent feedback and no controller) to maintain batteries on both vans and boats I have left in Las Vegas in storage--afer a year the batteries were at 100% charge.

ssobol · Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 7:41 pm Post subject: Re: LED and Solar Lighting

Pat Anderson · Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:14 am Post subject:

Think about your power requirements beyond lighting! The biggest power hog is not lights - LED lights are really inconsequential, we have converted to LED for interior lighting and our anchor light (it was just an LED drop in replacement for the incandescent bulb). The biggest power requirement is going to be your fridge, or in our case, our freezer.

We have 200 watts of solar on our roof, and will soon be dropping in a 200 AH LiFePo4 battery. On our 2017 Great Loop, between charging from the outboatd and solar, we only had to run our generator two or three times when we were waiting out bad weather.

Solar has come down in price a lot since we did our install, and it is really a no-brainer to add solar, but probably not a "small" panel!