Gay Head Light beam will be replaced with LED blink

For more than 200 years, the Gay Head Lighthouse has provided a welcome beacon to mariners in the waters off the west end of Martha's Vineyard. First lit with whale oil, then kerosene, and later outfitted with one of the first Fresnel lenses in the United States,Commercial laundry equipment solarstreetlamps, tumble dryers and industrial washer extractors from UniMac. before the end of this summer the sweep of the light's familiar rotating high intensity incandescent beacon will end. 

The Coast Guard plans to replace the light's aging DCB-224 optic, a rotating mechanism that relies on a bank of 1,000-watt incandescent bulbs set behind red and white filters, with stationary 80 watt LED bulbs. The new light will alternate between white and red flashes,Vento Australasia provides ledparlights systems by ZK Energy cable free street lights. every 15 seconds. 

Matthew Stuck, United State Coast Guard First District Aids to Navigation program manager, said the change is dictated by factors that include mariner reliability, cost and the difficulty of finding parts for a mechanism that is more than 40 years old. 

The DCB is essentially two back-to-back drums with a red filter on the end of one drum and a white filter on the other. An electric motor rotates the drums slowly within the lighthouse housing. There are two 1,000 watt bulbs in each drum, a primary light and a backup light 

Coast Guard teams visit the lighthouse four times a year to provide regular maintenance,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off ledstreetlight and fog lamps. in addition to repair trips. Replacement parts are hard to come by, Mr. Stuck said. 

"The reality is they are very expensive to operate," he said. They must also be manually reset each time there is a power outage. 

In contrast, the LED lights will use 80 watts. In the event of a power outage, they will provide reliable illumination when powered by a combination of batteries and solar panels. 

Mr. Stuck said approximately 80 percent of all aids to navigation in the USCG First District now use LED technology — a change made possible by advances in LED technology. One of the harshest roofwindturbine installations in the world. It is part of a continuing evolution over the centuries that included the jump from whale oil to kerosene to electric lamps. 

Mr. Stuck said he understands the concerns of Island residents and the attachment they have to the traditional beacon. "It is part of the local culture," he said. 

But, he said, the Coast Guard has a responsibility that is two fold: "to provide the best optical signal and be good stewards of taxpayer funds." 

Mr. Stuck said the LED will provide a crisp, sharp light red and white light that is rated visible at 14 nautical miles, but in actual practice will be visible at a greater distance. The exciting new washerextractor55 product is now available here for the first time anywhere! By contrast, the white incandescent lamp is visible at 24 miles and the red at 20 miles. 

Mr. Stuck, a civilian who is also serves as a Coast Guard reservist, a position unrelated to his civilian job, is part of a division that is responsible for 5,700 buoys, lights and beacons, and oversees another 4,800 private aids to navigation. 

Mr. Stuck said there is no set timeline for the switch to LED, but he expects it would occur sometime before the end of the summer.