Couple of comments on this subject. You get more efficient if you wire multiple leds in series and use a resistor to drop only the last bit of remaining voltage. I am pretty sure there is no such thing as a 12V LED. What you usually see is somebody else taking care of wiring things in series and packaging the resistor for you. LEDs are non-linear and don't like voltage spikes. Battery voltages fluctuate a lot. When I replaced my 4 20W engine room lights with 16 1W led lights, I decided to use a computer car DC-DC power supply/charger to regulate the voltage and provide protection against ignition surges and any other electrical issues. These are fairly cheap on ebay and I got two, one active and a spare. These can be high wattage, so one of them can drive a lot of LEDs. Since the one I used puts out 15V DC I was able to get 4 LEDs in series with a 12 ohm resistor for a 300ma current draw in each string. I have not measured it, but estimate that the total wattage is around 23W taking into account the resistor losses and 80% DC-DC conversion efficiency. Each LED is in its own fixture and the 16 lights are scattered all over the place. I can easily read by this lighting with the hatches closed and every corner is illuminted. I made my own Light fixtures using some scrap aluminum as a backing plate/heatsink, and a 3/4" PVC end cap drilled to fit the star LEDs I was using. The aluminum, LED and cap are held together using two screws. The whole thing weights almost nothing and attaches to my engine room ceiling using industrial strenght velcro. I just did this, so not sure how well the velcro will hold up over time, but liked the idea that I can shift the lights around a little if needed by having alternate velcro sites on the ceiling. Just read recently that one advantage of LEDs is that unlike incandescents, they do not attract bugs. Sounds like this could be a very useful characterstic for use on the outside of the boat. JonasB Andiamo!!