Carmanah Marine Lanterns
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PROJECT SUMMARY Canadian Coast Guard Saves $31M with Carmanah Marine Lanterns Since introducing the Marine Aids the invention of the first self-contained LED (SCLED) light, the full-allocated program costs to provide short-range aids to navigation in Canada decreased by 37 percent. SCLED-related savings have enabled the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) to improve levels of service while keeping costs down. the world's first fully lit marine navigation system in Newfoundland. The system uses 1,650 lighted buoys to cover the lit.OOO- mile (23,000 km) coastline of Newfoundland and Labrador. Without SCLED lighting, completing a project of this scope would have been cost-prohibitive. In the Maritimes Region alone, the CCG estimates it has trimmed more than $31M CDN in fully allocated costs from its annual budget through the implementation of the MAM project more than ¿t,500 SCLED lights. The Marine Aids Modernization Initiative The CCG has been faced with the ongoing challenge of maintaining a modern aids-to- navigation (ATON) system of 3,800 floating aids in the Maritime Region, which includes Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. With shrinking budgets and increasing find ways to maintain the ATON system at 99 percent service levels, in line with international standards, while improving efficiency and technologies, introducing the Marine Aids Prior to 1996, the CCG spent upwards of 1500 vessel days a year maintaining its floating aids to navigation. This required large vessels to haul in large stainless steel buoys to be sandblasted, painted and maintained, which resulted in escalating costs associated with annual maintenance cycles. One technology, self-contained LED (SCLED) lighting, is possibly the most important single contributor to MAM's success. SCLEDs have had a multiplier effect on savings by enabling the implementation of other technologies and cost-cutting measures. SCLED Lighting Carmanah introduced the first SCLED marine lights in 1996. It's appropriate that this event paralleled the start of the MAM program, because SCLEDs may be viewed as the program's technological catalyst. SCLEDs have all their components, including photovoltaic panels, batteries and sophisticated electronic controls, completely integrated and sealed within their lenses and polycarbonate/polymer lamp housings. The result is a compact, durable and weather-tight lamp that can withstand the harshest marine environments. A typical SCLED operates in temperatures ranging from -k0° to on a single charge, requires as little as 1.5 hours of daily sunlight to maintain consistent no bulb/battery changes or other maintenance for five to eight years.

Replacing Incandescent Lights SCLEDs, now available in ranges from one to four nautical miles, replace more expensive solar-powered tungsten-incandescent units. These older systems typically use heavy 12-volt external batteries, 6-square-foot solar panels with a supporting frame and connecting cables, and internal components that include lamps, automatic lamp changers and flash regulators. SCLEDs are compact, durable and weathertight and can withstand the harshest marine environments. SCLEDs can replace an entire traditional system and virtually eliminates all maintenance requirements....