Amp draw before and after LED.

[OG VX]

I'm a huge LED fan also. Thumbs up for this informative thread!

[deejaaa]

I like LEDs, as stated, not so for much economy, but heat savings and extra brightness. I have them in the map light and trunk(boot). have no dome light but thinking about putting one in when I redo my headliner, led of course. looking at a stupid bright one I have just for the fun of it.

[oil pan 4]

The heat is a good point. I have been considering taking the tail lights and adding auxiliary running lights, likely 194 incandescent bulbs to keep snow and ice from forming or sticking to the brake light lens.

[oil pan 4]

After driving through some light freezing rain I noticed ice was building up on the head light lenses after I got home.
As far as I could tell it did not effect the light.
But the LEDs do not put off enough heat to clear winter precip off from them selves.
It should not be a problem unless you spend extended time in freezing rain. I was driving for about half an hour and accumulated a very thin layer of ice.


That just gives me an excuse to figure out how to put more lights up front.

[oil pan 4]

I have another one.
This time I am putting a lighted mirror into my suburban.
The mirror is out of a 2000s ford car and replacing the 212 glass tube style bulb with an LED.

The glass tube light bulb part numbers I could find for this bulb were 212, 211, 578 and 6411.

The OEM style lights use around 1 amp each. To run both lights take about 2 amps.
The Sylvania LED I stuck in there was a part number 6411, because that's all I could find at the local parts store. Both lights on at the same time uses 0.05 amps.

Not a huge practical power saver I know. But I do know interior lights are notorious for being left on and killing a vehicles SLI (starting, lights, ignition) battery. If it keeps me from accidently killing my LiFePO4 battery it will be worth the $20 I spent for both LEDs.

So LED savings for this mod is anywhere between 1 amp per bulb to an entire vehicle battery.

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

After driving through some light freezing rain I noticed ice was building up on the head light lenses after I got home.
As far as I could tell it did not effect the light.
But the LEDs do not put off enough heat to clear winter precip off from them selves.
It should not be a problem unless you spend extended time in freezing rain. I was driving for about half an hour and accumulated a very thin layer of ice.


That just gives me an excuse to figure out how to put more lights up front.

Food for thought: in the caddy, when its below freezing and i use the wiper fluid it also sprays the headlights to clean them.

[ConnClark]

I'm impressed by your 12 amp savings. That would equate to a draw of 1/4th of a horsepower once alternator efficiency was considered.

[NoD~]

I just swapped from my standard headlights (in my 1st gen Neon) to the SuperBrightLED headlight ( https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...aid/2215/4995/ ).

With my amp-clamp on at 13.8v, the regular bulbs drew 4.65 amps low beams and 4.8 amps high beams. The LEDs are 1.65a low, 1.85a high. Brightness went up a little to boot. Since I run engine-off a lot and run on the smallest battery I could find (Odyssey PC680-P Battery), it helps a lot.

Overall, I've converted enough over to save about 115 watts with just the headlights on (that's counting the dash lights, tail lights, marker lights, etc.) The gauge cluster LED changeover was notable, as I dropped 20 watts alone there with just the headlights on.

I'm currently working on a new tail section for my car that will use trailer LED lighting that should finally replace my factory tails. I tried a cheaper LED replacement for them at one point, but weren't bright enough. Trailer ones are extremely bright (very directional) and go from 30 watts each to 1.65 watts each when applying the brakes.

Also, I just bought these... http://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Flood-Lights-Bumper-Warranty/dp/B00J5AAX5S/ref=sr_1_3?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1458221324&sr= 1-3&keywords=nilight and they take about 14-16w, pending voltage (actually drew less power with more voltage...). Great for fog lights or, in my case, reverse lights! About 1/2 the power of my factory tails, but WAY WAY WAY brighter, which is always good for backing up at night.

My biggest advice: You get what you pay for in LEDs. That, and that they are getting better constantly, making it cheaper and brighter every year.

[bhazard]

I'm not to convinced on drop-in LED headlight kits. Seems just like the HID kits. They're going into housings made for halogens. Beam pattern is gonna be all over the place and you're probably blinding oncoming traffic.

Unless I'm wrong?

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by bhazard

I'm not to convinced on drop-in LED headlight kits. Seems just like the HID kits. They're going into housings made for halogens. Beam pattern is gonna be all over the place and you're probably blinding oncoming traffic.

Unless I'm wrong?

This is the review that made me want to try them...
Group

I can tell you that the pattern is about the same as my old lights. As the review said, these specific lights definitely get right in front of you bright, but not so much in the distance. Definitely what I'm experiencing (though the distance is about the same as old lighting, closer up definitely brighter). I haven't had anybody flash their lights at me so far (only had them for maybe a week and it's not a big area). People around here aren't shy about letting you know, either. My wife's factory xB lights on low beams gets people flicking their headlights at me just about any time I drive at night. All that said, I can definitely see your concern as LEDs are very directional. Time will tell for me with my headlights.