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  1. #1

    32 Volt combination masthead light question

    The 32V combo masthead/anchor light on my boat has seen the end of its life. It uses a surgical lamp type bulb that is almost impossible to find and now the plastic housing has broken. I am having difficulty finding a similar lamp however I did find a Perko 1197 combo that uses either a 12V or 24V festoon bulb. My thoughts were to buy this one and put a 32V festoon bulb in it. I emailed Perko to make sure if this was ok and their response was "sorry we do not offer this in 32V at this time" Not answering my question. What are those of you with 32 volt systems using for combination mast head/anchor. My boat is too long to just use an all around white light. I know I can put a convertor down by the switch and somehow wire both the anchor & nav legs to it but dont really want to be dependant on that if it were to go out. Any suggestions are appreciated.

  2. #2

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    Light fixtures are rated in watts. So 10 watt 32v bulbs will work in there. Personally I would get one of Marinebeam's cheap converters and put a 12 volt LED in there. They know Hatteras and Perko issues pretty well, worth giving them a call.
    https://store.marinebeam.com/hattera...-dc-converter/
    George
    Former Owner: "Incentive" 1981 56MY
    2007-2014

  3. #3

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    GJH thats the convertor I was thinking about. I am wondering about its reliability since nav lights are safety issue. I suppose I could buy two and have a spare on board in case it went out. I will see if I can call them

  4. #4

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    George I called them and they dont offer a combination but their convertor will allow me to use the Perko fixture. I am going to have to figure out where the supply wire to the nav/anchor switch is and put it inline there to make both legs 12 volt. There is already a spider web of wires behind the panel that this switch is on and I would rather not contribute more. He said their deal is good for up to 3 amps. I will probably go LED in case both bulbs wind up being on at the same time or I want to add something else to it. FYI he also said in a month or so they are hoping to come out with a bulb that will do forward or all around in a fixture but I cant wait for that as mine is out

  5. #5

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    I am thinking now I will just buy the convertor and put in the breaker panel for nav lights. At 3 amps 12 volts should handle 36 watts. I can change the bulbs on all my nav lights to 12 volt LED and be below that threshold. The LED bulbs Marine beam sells are 2 watts. I will need to keep a spare convertor on hand though because if it goes I wont have any nav lights.

  6. #6

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    My 2 cents is that many times, a 24v bulb will work just fine in a 32v fixture. In fact, the eyeball lights in my aft guest Stateroom are spec'd 24v from Hatteras! But it's 32v in the circuit. Many, many LED replacement bulbs will handle 32v just fine also, and I've got some that says 12 to 36v. So try a 24v bulb in there, may not last quite as long, but will often work just fine.

  7. #7

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    And reading you question again, I replaced the fixtures outside my Pilothouse doors with perko 12v fixtures, and simply replaced the 12v bulbs with 32v..no problems whatsoever.

  8. #8

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    Quote Originally Posted by dottieshusband View Post
    My 2 cents is that many times, a 24v bulb will work just fine in a 32v fixture. In fact, the eyeball lights in my aft guest Stateroom are spec'd 24v from Hatteras! But it's 32v in the circuit. Many, many LED replacement bulbs will handle 32v just fine also, and I've got some that says 12 to 36v. So try a 24v bulb in there, may not last quite as long, but will often work just fine.
    I grabbed a 12 volt bulb and stuck it in the 32V closet fixture a while back. Really quite effective for flash photography. Spectacular!!
    Semper Siesta
    Robert Clarkson
    ASLAN, 1983 55C #343
    Charleston, SC

  9. #9

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    I went ahead and bought the bulbs from Marine Beam. They have direct cross reference replacements for the listed Perko bulb numbers in my Legacy series existing Perko lights. The issue with using just any bulb on nav lights is the visibility range has to be maintained. I suppose a 24 volt bulb would burn brighter on 32 volts but I dont want to be changing bulbs. I wanted to convert to LED anyway just so I dont have to change bulbs all the time. I converted my house to LED for this reason. I just wasn't able to find 32volt LED festoon bulbs. If all works as planned my cost for the bulbs for all nav lights and the buck convertor is $114. This includes the bulbs to replace the incadescent ones that go in the new Perko combo fixture I ordered.

  10. #10

    Re: 32 Volt combination masthead light question

    I converted the navigation lights from 32v to 12 volt LEDs. The conversion was simple. Purchase a 3 or 5 watt 36-12 volt buck converter. Open the 32 volt circuit breaker panel and wire in (insert) the buck converter POS to the circuit breaker and NEG to earth bus bar. Wire the buck converter output to the original navigation lights wiring. (You may need original Hatteras wiring diagram to determine wire coding numbers to identify yellow NEG.)The port and starboard lights clarity /output quality at distance can be improved by purchasing green and red LEDs if available. Otherwise increase the number of white LED's to compensate. My anchor light has about 50 LEDs and glows very well. All this for about 1.5 amps at 12 volts with all 5 navigation lights operating or the draw from the batteries of about 0.5 amp at 32 volts.The real benefit is after a night passage when you anchor, turn off the motors and forget to turn the navigation lights off. I found the old lights a real energy hog. My guess was that after a night at anchor I would need to run the generator and battery charger 20 minutes to replenish what the old incandescent anchor light had used over 12 hours.

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