LED Lights

[ConnClark]

Here is your answer!

Don't look for the cost of the LEDs to be paid off in mileage. Look at the cost of the LEDs as a way to prevent getting a ticket for a tail light out since they are more reliable. Then the mileage improvement is icing on the cake.

[JacobAziza]

My LED bulbs were one of the most expensive parts of my project.

I don't expect the current draw of the bulbs alone to make much fuel difference, but since I run w/o an alternator, it takes some stress off of my batteries. When considered a part of the alternator delete, the fuel savings are more apparent.
In particular, my white luxeons in front for driving lights let me leave the headlights off in low visibility but not completely night time conditions (like your winter commute) so it ends up saving 145 watts by not having the headlights on. They don't put as much light on the road, but they are actually more visible to oncoming drivers.

As an extra benefit, the LEDs are all much brighter than the stock bulbs were

[gabi]

i just replaced my interior light with a led from pep boys,

the bulb i took out was a 24 watt,and replaced it with a 1 watt....

the led its much dimmer ,but i can live with it
SO..i did a little math on the savings,

assuming a 2 min run/day for the interior light ,here's the math:
regular bulb

0.8 watts a day
24 watts a month
288 watts an year
2880 wats in ten years

for the led
120 watts for ten years

clearly big savings on the long run
and thats just for one single interiour light
i'm planing to change some more...

[ConnClark]

The nice thing is we can expect the efficiency of LEDs to go up. LED manufactures make LEDs using obsolete equipment from the computer chip market because they can get it cheap. As the geometries shrink they can increase the efficiency some more. Also look for the price to drop when they get equipment that allows them to go from 6 inch wafers to 12 inch wafers of silicon.

We had a vendor come in with a LED less than 5mm square it was blindingly bright. The demo board had a nice warning sticker on it too.

[gabi]

i hope the price goes down too,

at current prices,about 10 $ per led, the payback is something like 100 years

11,000 wats=1 galon of gas .....approximately

[Joenavy85]

Originally Posted by ConnClark

Here is your answer!

Don't look for the cost of the LEDs to be paid off in mileage. Look at the cost of the LEDs as a way to prevent getting a ticket for a tail light out since they are more reliable. Then the mileage improvement is icing on the cake.

you hit the nail on the head, LED bulbs won't pay you back in mileage. but they will in life span. all of my Jeep's bulbs are LED except the headlights and turn signals, paid about $150 for them all but for the most part i'll never have to change them out ever again. the turns signals aren't worth the money to change since you have to either get an entire new circuit or add a parallel resistor to prevent the fast flash, not worth the extra work. in the first 2 years i owned my jeep i burned out 5 of the 3157 (brakelight/taillight) bulbs, which is about equal to $12.50, as well as several other bulbs, one of which i got a $75 dollar ticket for it being out and me not realizing it.

[JacobAziza]

Originally Posted by Joenavy85

you hit the nail on the head, LED bulbs won't pay you back in mileage. but they will in life span. all of my Jeep's bulbs are LED except the headlights and turn signals, paid about $150 for them all but for the most part i'll never have to change them out ever again. the turns signals aren't worth the money to change since you have to either get an entire new circuit or add a parallel resistor to prevent the fast flash, not worth the extra work. in the first 2 years i owned my jeep i burned out 5 of the 3157 (brakelight/taillight) bulbs, which is about equal to $12.50, as well as several other bulbs, one of which i got a $75 dollar ticket for it being out and me not realizing it.

Electronic turn signal relays work normally with LEDs w/o resistors.
At my local auto shop it was only a couple dollars more than the old style thermal flasher.

[smokeyj]

LEDs light up instantly, regular tail lights take 0.1 second. At 60mph the extra warning time an LED provides the guy behind you can turn a bad accident into nothing.

[Zerohour]

If you bulbs have that long of a delay, either they need to be replaced, or you have bad wiring with a high impedance.

[NachtRitter]

I think smokeyj is right... check out LED Lamps on the Drag Racing Tree vs. Incandescent Lamps Tech Article Anaheim Orange County California