LED car headlights are a promising technology. They have many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life, faster on/off times, lower power consumption) but the technology has still limitations. LEDs can be used as car headlight when the lighting system is specifically designed for LEDs. There are even some DIY projects for this.
The current LED products do not not seem to be ready for drop-on replacement of normal light bulbs used on card headlight. Generally LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent bulbs. This is a common problems on many LED products: they consume less power and have higher efficiency, but majority of the LED bulb replacement products have considerably less brightness than the original bulb they try to replace. Also the light is distributed differently so they can appear brighter in some applications and not as bright in others, it depends on the size and shape of the bulb housing and reflector. LED bulbs may cause some newer vehicles to indicate a bulb is burnt out (because of their low power consumption).
H1 68 x 1210 3.4W White Light Bulb (DC 12V) bulb promises a lot: Increased more visibility when driving at night. Easy installation, plug and play with no modification needed. Too bad the beam focus will be a floodlight! The reason for that is that H1 filament is about 1/32″ by 1/4″ and the light reflector optics are designed to produce the intended light beam from that kind of light source. If you replace the small filament type light source with a rod covered with LED’s the resulting light beam be a mess: light everywhere, but not focused. Not what was intended by the original car light designer. And not what the car lamp approval bodies expect the get out from the lamp.
Also the total light output would not be what is needed. most probably “not enough”. A 55w halogen should typically be putting out 500-1000 lumens (maybe more), whereas a good 3.4w led would be about 250 lumens or maybe even less. So you would get considerably less light out output that you would get with the original light bulb and the light beam would be a mess.
H7 6W 190-Lumen 18×5050 SMD LED Car White Light Bulb (DC 12V) is another bulb replacement product. It seems to have also same problems as the previous product. An ordinary halogen reaches an excess of 1000 lumen, as you can see, this led is only 190 lumens. This could maybe used for decorative “day lights” but cannot replace the main lights. The light output would probably be also mess. So the end result would be that installing such bulb to your car would get you very dim lights that would probably not meet the regulations covering the car headlight performance.
Maybe it is not so good idea to replace the car light bulb with LED yet. LED replacement product promise a lot but usually do not live up to their promises. If anyone knows any real LED alternatives to card bulbs, feel free to post comments on them.
147 Comments
Peter Solar Power says:
Yes, I do believe that LEDs are replacing conventional lighting. I work with Sharp and have been doing some research on LEDs. LED bulbs use 80% less energy than incandescent lighting. They produce 500% more light per watt, and they do not produce as much heat. This creates them being both eco-efficient and cost effective.
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Mark in Missouri says:
WARNING. LED’s (as of 2012) Just aren’t Bright Enough for Exterior Lights! Yes, that includes some of the “superbright” advertised LED’s. I wish I had read this site before I started trying to replace all the bulbs with LED’s. I’ve tried repeatedly, to use LED Bulbs in my several automobiles in the last two months. For example, in one fixture I have two superbright amber led’s (total of more than 60 led bulbs) and it’s still not as bright, as two regular 2057a incandescent bulbs. I was seriously thinking about drilling a hole and putting in a third bulb, till I came to my senses last night and said…enough! Just put in a bigger incandescent bulb (2357a) and be through! Quit trying to make LED”s brighter…they are just plan dim in exterior bulbs! In the last two months, I have purchased more than 20 different varieties of LED bulbs, each time with the hope or advertising promise this would substitute for incandescent or halogen bulbs. I have discovered, they do not live up to the promise or hype…in terms of adequate light output or warmth. It’s January 2012 and I’m sorely disappointed in LED’s for exterior auto usage, “EXCEPT” as an auxiliary to incandescents. Reason: LED’s just don’t have the lumens…nowhere near as bright, or when they are bright, they are only focused in one direction…..or they don’t reflect like you want or are used to, unfocused Alternately, some of them have horrible distribution patterns. I was in denial, I kept trying to make them work, till last night. So I want to warn you, do not believe the hype that LED”s are better. To be sure, I like them for interior lights (provided you go with the WARM WHITE…the cool white/blue is too cold for my taste except for specialty projects) but they are generally not as bright. I have one 24 LED panel interior light, which is not as bright as the previous single incandescent! Dash LED”S often have “hot spots” with other areas dim, with uneven distribution. Replacing your exterior lights to save energy…then using a resistor circuit to bleed wattage so it will blink…DEFEATS the purpose and uses just as much energy! Then you end up with less light output, same energy cost. This is a very hard lesson I’ve just learned, beware that LED’s…no matter what they say….just don’t have the same light distribution pattern and often have a cold blue light, plus less lumens. Beware and consider sticking with regular incandescents, halogens, etc until the LED market matures. Right now, there are far too many LED sales organizations more than willing to blatantly lie to you about light output….and there are thousands of people who have bought the LED exterior lights, only to take them out and replace them with regular lights due to low light output. Have you ever wondered why the autoparts stores sell very few LED’s? That is because most mechanics and others know most cars aren’t designed for the LED and you will be unhappy with LED exterior lights. The EXCEPTION to using LED’s would be those cars designed for led’s with special multibulb fixtures. AND the exception is when you want to create a new unique look inside your car with creative colors (cold blue, yellows, rainbows, etc.) and/or extra led’s under the car to create ground lighting or unique lights. That’s fine, your choice. Just don’t expect them to take the place of the light output of your regular old incandescent light bulbs for turn signals, brake lights, etc. They make rapid auxiliary brake lights, fine. But they will NOT be as bright. Signed, a guy who learned this the hard way as of 2012
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We send you the catalogue, if you are in the market for and want to know the latest price, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
We are looking forward to your early reply with much interest!
Best regards.
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