Come see us at Oshkosh

Just some general comments - not aimed at Dean's product...

LED has been touted as the end all and be all of lighting, replacing
the incandescent bulb... However, the emperor's new clothes may be a
bit revealing...

First, is that LED lights require substantial heat sinks and adequate
ventilation in order to function... (Dean's product looks competently
designed for this)... Failure to adequately cool the LED will result
in short service life... An adequate heat sink often erases any size
advantage the LED started out with...
Initial installation cost of LED light assembly is markedly higher
than an incandescent... Colreg approved LED running lights for boats
are downright expensive...
Replacement cost of LED lighting that fails in service is vastly
higher than simply replacing a $20 bulb...
By the time the LED assembly is properly cooled with a heatsink the
weight advantage of LED is markedly lessened...
Voltage control is more stringent for proper functioning of LED light
assemblies, as opposed to incandescent filament bulbs..
Dimmers for LED lights are expensive for technical reasons...

In boats/yachts where extended operation from a battery set is a way
of life there has been a rush to replace incandescent with LED due to
it's more efficient use of watt hours... The experience with that has
shown that LED has its place, but it is not a blanket replacement...
For task lighting, such as spot lighting over a galley counter, the
LED is excellent... It is also excellent for lighting of stair steps,
in the head, inside of cabinets, drawers and closets, and night
lights...For general cabin lighting (even lighting of large areas) the
cold cathode and fluorescent lights are still preferred... For high
intensity tasks, such as deck lights, anchor raising lights, and spot
lights, the halogen bulb still reigns supreme... For a reading light,
the jury is still out - and I personally have not found a light my
eyes like better than the incandescent for extended periods of
reading... For mast lights and running lights the LED is making
progress, but initial cost and light output is still an issue...

Things are never as simple as they seem... Now, this is not intended
to begin a debate over Dean's product, it is simply remarks on what I
have found in the 2 years of research for outfitting my boat... What
that means in an aircraft is up to you...

denny