Carmanah Technologies Corporation (CTC) have announced that its 700 Series solar-powered LED (Light Emitting Diode) marine lights have been officially approved for use on United States Coast Guard (USCG) aids to navigation. This approval was released by the Commandant for the USCG through Notice 16500 – issued on July 30, 2002 and entitled “Equipment for Discrepancy Buoy/Small Lighted Buoy Applications”.
Art Aylesworth, CEO of Carmanah said: “We are extremely pleased to have this approval, as it adds third-party credibility to our products by one of the worlds most sophisticated and respected marine authorities.” The USCG has been testing versions of the 700 Series since the original design was built in 1999 under USCG contract. “We expect this endorsement to have a significant impact on the success of our international marine sales program.”
Notice 16500 represents one of the first approvals of LED-based marine lights by the USCG. All area and district commanders have received notice that they are now officially permitted to use Carmanah’s 700 Series marine lights on discrepancy buoys, ATON stations, small lighted buoys and other platforms at their discretion. During 2002-2003, in an effort to reduce service costs, the USCG is performing a rigorous economic analysis of the total ownership cost of its traditional incandescent signals versus a potentially large-scale conversion to newer LED-based lighting technologies.
Carmanah’s 700 Series line comprises 3 models: the 701, 702, and 702-5. These units are entirely self-contained and feature unique, proprietary solar-powered LED lighting technology. They retail between US$1000 and US$1250 each and are designed to operate reliably nearly anywhere in the world with no maintenance for up to 5 years. In a comparison of marine lights by the Departement Signalisation Maritime et Fluviale (France), Carmanah’s 700 Series units proved to offer the lowest cost of acquisition, the lowest cost of installation, as well as the lowest cost of operation for marine lights with visibilities up to 3.5 nautical miles.