www.hellamarine.com
21
Hella marine LED based lighting products are sophisticated
opto-electronic devices designed for durable, highly energy
efcient, maintenance free operation. Listed below are
some key considerations when selecting LED based lamps
for marine exterior and interior applications.
Lens and Optic Technology.
LED based marine general interior lighting is developing fast to
become a viable solution for durable and highly energy efcient
lighting. To take advantage of the ever increasing efcacy of the
most advanced LEDs becoming available, highly efcient optic
design is essential.
The goal for general LED interior lighting is the even illumination of a
specied area or to highlight and illuminate features of a vessel.
All Hella marine LED lamps use integrated highly efcient optics,
lens designs or Free-Form reector technology to accurately capture
and distribute the light available from the LED. Examples include:
- Oblong LED step lamps with 30 degree down angle light beam to
illuminate the tread of steps and stairs onboard without dazzle from
the lamps themselves. (page 35)
- Round and Square LED courtesy lamps providing attractive uniform
light patterns via an efcient optic and lens with embedded glass
spheres for minimum light losses. (pages 30-33)
- EuroLED lamps employ an accurately machined optic and lens
combination to provide an even spread of bright white light with
minimum light losses. (pages 24, 26, 27)
- LED spot lamps use an innovative reector to create a powerful
interior spot light pattern without causing glare. (pages 28-29)
Optics and Eye Safety.
With the signicant advances of LED brightness, eye safety
considerations are increasingly important. It is essential for high
power LEDs to be coupled with optic designs that protect the eye’s
retina from possible damage.
It is desirable for the entire lens area of a lamp to be evenly
illuminated via an efcient optic rather than using a bundle of LEDs
without any optic.
Heat and thermal management.
Competent and well engineered thermal management of a LED
device is essential for the long-term durability of Hella marine LED
lamps. Well designed LED interior lamps save power and reduce the
heat loading in a cabin compared to incandescent lighting.
A common misunderstanding is that LED’s do not generate heat. In
contrast to incandescent lamps however LED’s like to ‘run cold’.
High output LED’s do generate heat, which needs to be coupled to
surfaces designed to efciently transport the heat away from the
LED itself. LEDs that overheat, meaning the junction temperature of
the LED rises above a set threshold, will permanently degrade and
signicantly reduce their luminous efcacy.
A noticeably ‘hot to touch’ exterior surface of a high output LED
interior lamp provides some indication that the light output of the
device will deteriorate within a few hundred hours. Well engineered
LED devices will operate ‘cool’ or ‘slightly warm’ to the touch after
many hours of operation.
The technical expertise of Hella marine in thermal management,
coupled with superior optics and electronic design, ensures the
long term durability of all our LED lighting products with minimal
degradation over many years of service.
Colour Temperature.
When selecting LED interior lighting, selecting the right colour
temperature* and a high *Colour Rendering Index (CRI) is
important.
*Colour temperature - The description used to describe the effect of
heating an object until it glows incandescently, the emitted radiation,
and apparent color, changes proportional to the temperature; easily
envisioned when considering hot metal in a forge that glows red,
then orange, and then white as the temperature increases.
Cool White - A description of light with a correlated colour
temperature between 4500 Kelvin (K) and 10000 K, usually
perceived a slightly blue. Warm White, closer to incandescent
lamps, starts at 3500 K and lower.
*CRI or Colour Rendering Index - The calculated rendered colour of
an object. The higher the CRI (based upon a 0-100 scale), the more
natural the colours appear. Natural outdoor light has a CRI of 100.
Common lighting sources have a large range of CRI.
Both Colour temperature and a high CRI are an important selection
criteria when considering the installation of LED interior lamps for
general lighting.
During the LED production process the exact colour temperature
and the brightness of the nished product cannot be pre-
determined with certainty. For this reason LEDs are selected after
the manufacturing process into various brightness and colour
temperature classes.
To achieve uniformity of our products, Hella marine uses only
selected colour and brightness classes. In contrast the colour
temperature and the CRI of an incandescent bulb or Quartz
Halogen bulb is very uniform.
Hella marine describes warm white as a colour temperature closer
to the output of a Halogen Bulb lamp. White describes a colour
temperature in the bright white range, up to 5200 K.
Light in the 5200 K plus range may not enhance a vessels interior,
compared to the warm white (yellow) tones of an incandescent lamp
as colour temperatures above 5200 K can look ’cold’ and ‘clinical’.
Bright white colour temperatures reduce the visible colour of food,
upholstery, carpets, timber, and also skin tones making skin appear
pale and grey. Colour temperatures towards the ‘warm white’ range
of 2800 K add life and vibrancy to people and objects.
Colour temperature examples;
1850 K Candle
2800 K Halogen G4 Bulb (Incandescent lamp)
3000 K Hella marine Warm White LED courtesy lamp
5200 K Hella marine White EuroLED lamp
5400 K Hella marine White LED courtesy lamp
6500 K Daylight
LED Lighting Technology
Introduction
1800K 4000K 5500K 8000K 12000K 16000K
