58 DECEMBER 2015 | International Boat Industry http://www.ibi-plus.com
TECHNICAL
SECTOR SPOTLIGHT | BOAT LIGHTING
Takeoff for
LED light path
LED LIGHTING HAS BECOME ALMOST UBIQUITOUS FOR
UNDERWATER ILLUMINATION AND IS FAST BECOMING SO
FOR INTERIORS. THE TECHNOLOGY IS EVOLVING QUICKLY
AND THE PACE OF INNOVATION SHOWS NO SIGNS OF
SLOWING DOWNWORDS: BOB GREENWOODAS WELL AS interior, deck and
navigation lighting, LEDs have
transformed underwater lighting on
yachts since Lumishore, a pioneering
electronics company in South Wales,
with LED and semiconductor engineering
know-how, developed what is widely
acknowledged to have been the world’s
first colour-changing LED lighting array
for underwater illumination applications.
Launched in 2008, this has already
become commonplace lighting up boat
hulls beneath the waterline in yacht
harbours around the world.
It’s not diffi cult to see why LED lighting
has risen in popularity so quickly. For
their light output LED lamps use very
little electricity compared with the HID
(High Intensity Discharge) and normal
halogen lamps currently available. At the
same time, their longevity compared with
any other form of lighting is immense.
A service life of 50,000 hours is often
quoted by manufacturers, although that
depends very much on the quality of the
lamp, the fi tting in which it is housed and
the array and driver design.
Add to that the easy controllability
of sophisticated lighting effects and
their integration with existing electronic
control and monitoring systems.
As if all of the above qualities were
not enough legislation is also putting
its weight behind the adoption of LED
lighting on energy saving grounds.
In 2016 legislation for electrical
appliances will come into force in the
European Union that will end the sale
of conventional lamps for domestic use,
leaving the way clear for LEDs and low-
energy sodium-vapour lamps to replace
them. Similar legislation is also being
enacted in the USA.
When it comes to marine lighting,
Eifrion Evans, CEO of the multiple award-
winning Lumishore has no doubt that:
“the inherent advantages of LED lighting
systems for the leisure marine underwater
lighting market make LED lighting an
absolute shoe-in and a true no-brainer
technology of choice for this market
sector.” Older, white-only, lighting
technologies, he says, “have little place
in the future for underwater lighting and
we do not expect new installations to
continue, although existing installations
and fi xtures will undoubtedly survive for
some time”.
Above the waterline, Eifrion Evans
continues: “The LED has until recently
had limited application in many interiormarine installations, since the required
aesthetic CRI (Colour Rendition Index)
lighting units of CRI 90+ were not
available at a reasonable price. Now that
these higher-level CRI LEDs have become
readily available at a reasonable cost,
we are set to see LED lighting also taking
a greater share of the entire interior
lighting sector.”TRENDING SECTOR
As one of the most vibrant sectors of
the boating market, LED lighting has
attracted a lot of entrepreneurial interest.
Dozens of companies are now offering
it. The METSTRADE 2015 catalogue
alone listed nearly 90 companies offering
marine lighting products at the show and
it’s a sure bet that most, if not all, will
have had LED in their offer. So, in light of
a boating market where the numbers of
new craft being built has declined since
the pre-2008 recession boom, is there
a danger that the lighting sector could
overheat?
It would seem that this is not the
expectation of most of the companies in
this sector. Evans, for one, believes that
“the LED market still has considerable
opportunity and future growth potential
ahead of it – not only in terms of its
market penetration, but also in terms of
its increasing integration into the boating
lifestyle. LED is far from ‘mature’ and
exciting opportunities remain which willSLumishore
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