| | | quote | Originally posted by Wichita:
Is there something we can do that is "legal" but have a LED or some other low-wattage blub?
There is such a big difference in power usage. Going from .25 - .60amps in a standard bulb to .04amps in an LED can is a big deal, especially if you convert to EV, you want as much power savings as you can reasonably get. |
|
LED Not with any fixtures made for standard bulbs.
Note that Power Draw by standard bulbs is Not exactly standard... Data in the cave and many others are based on "typical bulb" in whatever format. Some like "Long Life" bulbs use a bit less power so doesn't cook the filament so hard. Sim to 2057 vs 2357 hot filaments eating 2.1a & 2.23a and last 1200hr vs 400hr... Both numbers have exact same parts other then the filaments. (Dim filament pulls 0.49 vs 0.59 but both rated 5000hr. LL bulb often means only bright side w/ dual filaments.)
You can buy legal LED fixtures in common formats for several years now and many are OE for the trunking industry. And even they have problems like LED claiming will last for decades... I'll get back to this...
Ignoring "EV conversion" just now...
"Saving Power" for most light bulbs mean little to nothing for any ICE vehicles. Stop/Turn bulbs aren't use enough to matter. Park and Markers use far less power.
Using Legal LED HL upgrades may not save a lot of power vs OE Halogen either because many H6054 are 35/55watts and most run low beam nearly to all of time. Trucklite and other legal LED HL have little data publish on power used by their product.
You and many think EV need LED but Real EV often have OE standard bulbs for Brake and/or Turn lights. Might use LED for others but often use Many LED to meet US FMVSS 108 and other counties rules for light output etc. and doesn't save much or any power vs 194 or 2057 etc on the "dim" filament.
As to "long life" really watch Prius and others and see many LED Taillights partly or totally dead. And replacing them cost way Way more money and often only a Dealer part and hard to access w/o damage the body. Worse then LED High Brake lights built into many cars for decades now.
Even on big trucks using common fixture formats right from Mac Oshkosh etc, they get pissed when LED die because cost a lot more to replace a whole 4" or 6" round fixture. LED fixtures are not made to be fix unless also has a standard bulb section and the bulb can be replace when that dies only.
[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 09-01-2022).]
