At the end of the day though, the only persons responsible for maintaining compliance is the boat owner and operators, not manufacturers.
In order to meet compliance with navigation lighting regulations, lights must be tested by an approved testing group to ensure they meet brightness, visibility, color, corrosion and operating temperature requirements.
Lights must properly visible from the correct angles, and they must meet nautical mile requirements as well. Since bow lights and similar devices usually contain two colors which are intended to be separately visible from a specific range of angles in order for other boaters to be able to determine the vessels position and heading in relation to their own.
Improperly designed or installed lighting can alter these angles or reduce the overall visibility distance creating an unsafe condition.
In order to meet these requirements incandescent navigation light fixtures use housings and reflector assemblies that are designed specifically to work with the 360 degree radiance of the incandescent bulb.
They collect and focus the light from the incandescent bulb and distribute it in such as manner as to produce the highest possible brightness while achieving the correct angle of visibility.
LEDs on the other hand do not radiate light the same way. LEDs radiate light only over one portion of their surface, which results in a greatly reduced angle of radiance, oftentimes as small as 120 degrees.
If installed in a fixture or housing designed to work with a bulb producing 360 degrees of radiance, the result can be greatly reduced angle of visibility and much lower brightness.
The safest route for boaters looking to ljusskyltar upgrade to LED navigation lights to take is choosing dedicated LED fixtures that have been designed around the unique characteristics of the LED and ensuring these fixtures have been certified to meet Coast Guard requirements.
Besides ensuring better compliance and safety, new fixtures will allow boaters to realize much better savings and reliability as new fixtures will most likely be constructed of more durable materials and carry a warranty that covers the entire fixture rather than just the upgrade lamps alone.
The potential for safety issues and possibility of citations should an inspection reveal an upgrade is not in compliance far outweighs the small savings to be had from attempting to retrofit LEDs to existing fixtures.
In all reality, in most cases installation of a new fixture is more easily accomplished as well and leaves less room for installation errors and mistakes that could potentially damage the replacement or reduce its useful life.
No comments:
Post a Comment