Don't fear the dark!!

[spacemanspif]

I'm sorry for the gigantic image. I hope that the website re-sizes it for you like it does for me

I was reading the most recent motor trend this weekend and saw an article for a Kia k900. Its a new luxury car they are releasing but what caught my eye was the headlights. They are LEDs!!!! The future is closer than I thought. Hopefully in the near future there will be more companies offering them and retrofit kits for older cars (thinking about the 4x6 headlights on my Monte). But depending on how well they work, I'd even consider making something work on my Saturn (or whatever car I may be driving at that time).

I know headlamps draw a ton of power, think it might be good for 1mpg??





HTH

[Cobb]

Ive seen prius and other cars with led lamps and they just dont seem to cut through the fog that well. Hell, even the led street traffic signals and lamps just dont cut the wet stuff when its added to the air. Think Ill stick with halogen or hid for now.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

I know headlamps draw a ton of power, think it might be good for 1mpg??

Electrical Loads - EcoModder
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...hts-15179.html

[ssnsvibe09]

I would suggest that you determine your motivation for the mod....I don't think the energy saving will be as fruitful as you hope. Gasoline fuel converted into 12 volt power is 21% efficient according to GM.

Your typical halogen headlights are 55 or 65 watts each and HID's are around 35 watt plus the ballast load. LED bulbs for DRL are around 30 watts and might require resistive loads to fool Canbus systems.

Assuming a difference of 30 watts per bulb. You are talking about a saving of 0.060 KWH or .29 KWH of gasoline. Gasoline is around 33 KWH/ Gal(US). So it looks like you are talking about a saving of around 1 ounce per hour of use.

Now imagine how long it will take to recoup the cost of the lights and installation....

another point. I would love to replace my DRL's but they are also my low beams, but from the research that I have been doing the light distribution may not be effective or even legal for aftermarket replacements.

Not all is lost though in my opinion. I am kicking around the idea of disconnecting my 9006 DRL input and maybe replacing my corner lamps with LED and using them as my DRL circuit. Apparently my 09 vibe has the dead bulb system, so I might have my work cut out.

So far I know that my current DRL consume .110 KWH 12 volt current and my current corner lamps are rated at .117 KWH. 4 corner 1157's and one (157 white?) 97 license bulb. LED replacements will cost around 75 dollars and will only save .062KWH

That is alot of driving at a savings of an ounce an hour. I am thinking atleast 2500 hours... I might consider just replacing them with LED's as the orginals fail. In the meantime I will opt for other mods as I think I just shot down this mod is three short paragraphs.

[Cobb]

I think the drls in my insight off vs on equaled like .2 mpg at highway speeds.

[deejaaa]

LEDs pushing watts/amps generate a lot of heat. all of the retrofit kits i've seen have fans mounted to the heatsinks so not sure how much the mileage would increase. there isn't info on the cooling fans that i know of.
1600lm, 30w:

[spacemanspif]

Thank you to everyone for the interesting reads. I had no idea that LEDs draw as much as has been stated here and the info. on lights with cooling systems is interesting too.

I'm figuring retrofit kits in the future will look like the KIA's headlights, 4 independently focused beams that can basically be glued into any housing you can think of. Thus (hopefully) negating the need for cooling fans. Those CREEs shown above need to run much brighter because they had to be designed to work with a reflector that was never meant for LEDs. I'm assuming (and its a big assumption) that cooling fans would not be necessary on the KIA because the reflector is designed to work with the LED. New LED flashlights are really bright with a beautiful beam pattern and if they don't need a cooling fan, why would ones designed for use as a headlight need them? Lets me honest, the reflector is just as, if not more, important than the source of light.

[PaleMelanesian]

For us on this site, there's another bigger benefit to low-power lights. The direct gas savings aren't much, it's true. However, if the lower battery drain allows longer engine-off coasting at night, that's a big win. Better to have low power lights than to keep the engine running just for the sake of powering lights.

Let's say you're in neutral, so the engine is idling. Mine idles at 0.17 gph.
Let's say the low-power lights allow 10% more engine-off time.
0.17 * 0.1 = .017 gph saved
$3 / gal = $.05 / hour saved
$50 retrofit lights / $.05 / hour = 1000 hours driving time to break even.
I commute an hour each day (1/2 hour each way), so that's 3 years. If I had a bigger engine the payback would come sooner.

[deejaaa]

what i've seen, it's either a heatsink at 5w or below or both heatsink/fan for above 10w. i'm gonna fabbing 3-3w parallel arrays for the 3rd brake light and will be using a bar of aluminum for the mount/heatsink. the better the heat distribution the longer they will last.
mia is using "adaptive LED headlights", meaning,
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/adaptive-headlight.htm
With adaptive headlights, the lights turn their beams around each bend in the road, giving a better view of what's ahead.

Adaptives react to steering, speed, elevation and automatically adjust to illuminate the road. When turning right, they angle right. Turn left, they angle left, reducing glare.
Adaptives use electronic sensors to detect car speed, how far the driver has turned the steering wheel, and yaw. They direct motors in the headlight to turn them, typically up to 15 degrees from center, giving 30-degrees of movement.
If 15 degrees isn't enough, as in low-speed turning in a parking lot or sharp curves, additional lighting can supplement. Some BMWs are equipped with cornering lights. If the car has fogs, small reflectors swivel to direct the fogs off to the side. In the absence of fogs, additional side-directed lamp is installed with the headlights. When moving slower than 25 mph and turning, the cornering lights illuminate up to 80 degrees of additional area to the side of the car. When speeding up or finishes turning, lights automatically turn off.
Sensors prevent the lights from turning when not needed. If not moving or in reverse, they won't activate, keeping them from blinding other drivers.

[niky]

Just drove a car with quad-LEDs the other week, and I was floored by how cool they look. Light throw doesn't seem all that bad, either..

(not my pic)

As seen here, the cut-off isn't as sharp as HID, but the light production is pretty good.