What if we had a type of resistor which
could accommodate the changing voltage? There is such a device, and it is used
by many panel lights led cluster
manufacturers. The device is called a Linear Regulator, and it is a small step
up in control technology from the primitive ballast resistor. A Linear
Regulator is a low-cost control method which can be thought of as a variable
resistor that varies the resistance according to the load in order to provide a
constant output voltage to the LEDs. Because it is still a resistive device, it
controls excess energy (above that required by the LEDs) by turning it into
heat. But wait a minute, isn't HEAT the great enemy of LEDs? That's right! Of
course, with proper design one could dissipate some of the heat, but overall,
Linear Regulator can only work for small voltage variations, which is fine for
some applications, but again, not suitable for the full of battery banks, solar
panels and generators and inverters of our electrically hostile marine world.
Hopefully the above makes it very clear why
ballast resistor bulbs and cheap bulbs have no place on a boat. From what you
have read in the previous paragraphs, you are now considerably better informed
than the average person looking for led
panels. Not only that, you are most probably better informed than most of
the uninformed merchants out there selling LED bulbs to the unsuspecting
boater.
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