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Re: Anyone moved to LED Lighting?



In article <he7b0502e2r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Nate Nagel wrote:

>What I don't understand is why LEDs are so excellent in flashlights (the
>3W Task Force light kicks a Mag-Lite's ass BTW) bike head/taillights,
>truck taillights and traffic lights but it is so difficult to find good
>ones for home lighting and/or retrofitting into car taillights?

  Flashlight bulbs tend to mostly be less efficient than ones used for
home lighting.

  One advantage LEDs have for flashlights is that their energy energy only
changes slightly (mostly improves slightly) when the batteries weaken,
while incandescents greatly lose energy efficiency.

  Another thing:  The cost of LEDs needed to achieve an 800, 1600 or 1710
lumen light is fairly prohibitive, more so for warm white, and the amount
of heatsinking needed is a tall order now to get into something the size
of a regular lightbulb.

  As for LED taillights:  They make those.  Cadillac has been using them
for many years already.  Some other cars are now being made with them.

  An LED retrofit bulb to put into a taillight made for an incandescent is
another story.  It is quite a tall order to get an LED light source with
the same emitter shape and size and same radiation pattern and suitable
output so as to achieve the same optical results as with incandescent.

  A light to serve a legally required function on a motor vehicle has to
fall within both lower and upper limits of candela into a few dozen
different specified directions, and must be properly certified to do so,
in order to be street legal.  An incandescent light with an LED retrofit
bulb generally fails to achieve this, let alone be certified to do so with
any particular mfr/part-number LED bulb.  It is illegal to refit a legally
required motor vehicle light with a bulb other than one it is certified to
use.

 - Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)


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