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Frequently Asked Questions About LED
Lighting
LED Lamp sizes and bases
LED lamps intended to be interchangeable with incandescent lamps are made in
standard light bulb shapes, such as an Edison screw base, an MR16 shape with a
bi-pin base, or a GU5.3 (Bipin cap) or GU10 (bayonet socket). LED lamps are made
in low voltage (typically 12 V halogen-like) varieties, and as replacements for
regular AC (e.g. 120 or 240 V AC) lighting. These lamps typically include
circuitry to rectify the AC power and to convert the voltage to a level usable
by the internal LED elements.
Are bulbs with more leds brighter than bulbs with less?
The number of leds is not the determining factor of bulb brightness.
Different types of leds vary greatly in brightness. The wattage of a led bulb is
a better indicator of the light output. The typical light output for the current
generation of white leds is about 30 lumens per watt. However, the newest power
leds from Cree are in a different category with output up to 65 lumens per watt.
Just three of these big leds can output as much light as 100 or more common leds.
Warranty Information for using LED replacement bulbs.
Do not use LED bulbs in the same housing with headlamps, the heat will cause
them to fail quickly and void the warranty, guaranteed the lamp’s working
temperature: -40°C~100°C
Some GM vehicles apply a pulsed voltage to the Day Time Running lights (DTR),
this pulsed voltage causes LED bulbs to fail quickly, just as the stock filament
bulbs also fail quickly in these DTR installations.
How does the brightness of led lighting compare to incandescent lighting?
Led light bulbs are much brighter than incandescent or halogen bulbs of the
same wattage, but led bulbs are not available in high wattages. Thus, when
replacing incandescent or halogen lamps with led lamps, more led lamps are often
needed. For example, to replace one 65-watt incandescent floodlight you may need
two 6-watt or 7-watt led floodlights. Although you have more bulbs you are still
using 80% less electricity.
Incandescent bulbs use about five times as much power to produce the same amount
of light as led bulbs. At low power levels the difference is larger. At higher
power the difference is somewhat smaller. Electrical power is measured in watts.
For example, a led bulb consuming 3 watts might output light comparable to a
20-watt incandescent bulb, and a 6-watt led bulb might be comparable to 30-watt
incandescent bulb. Our brightest led floodlamps use 11 to 12 watts and output
light comparable to a 50-watt incandescent.
Which led bulb is comparable to a standard 60 watt light bulb?
Unfortunately, there are no led bulbs that can match the light output of a
regular 60 watt incandescent bulb at this time. The brightest led bulbs are
directional flood lights and spotlights. The brightest of these are comparable
to 45-50 watt incandescent bulbs. Few non-directional led bulbs are brighter
than a 25-30 watt incandescent.
What do "cool white" and "warm white" mean, and what is CCT?
The Color Correlated Temperature (CCT) is given in the description of each
of our white led bulbs. The color (CCT) of our white bulbs ranges from a warm
yellow (2700K) to a cool blue white (7000K).
By comparison, a typical incandescent bulb has a CCT of 2800K. A typical halogen
is a bit higher, maybe 3500K. Daylight white is 4500K and a cool white
fluorescent is 6000K or more.
The human eye adapts to background light so that even a daylight white bulb will
look slightly blue in a room illuminated mainly with incandescent bulbs.
Similarly, an incandescent bulb will look very yellow in midday sunlight.
Can led bulbs be used with dimmer controls?
We have not been able to find any LED bulbs that are made to work with
dimmers. However, we recently found a bulb that does seem to work okay. Testing
with an inexpensive dimmer switch designed for incandescent bulbs, our SP80B LED
bulb is dimmable from 100% brightness down to about 25%. It is the only high
power LED bulb we have found that dims smoothly.
What is the difference between a floodlight and a spotlight?
Led spotlights output a narrower beam of light, typically less than 30
degrees wide. Most of the light from a spotlight is concentrated onto a
relatively small area producing a bright spot. Led floodlights output a wider
beam of light, up to 160 degrees, so the light from a floodlight is spread out
over a much larger area.
Because the light is more concentrated, a spotlight will appear brighter than a
floodlight but only within its narrower beam. A spotlight is more suited to
illuminating objects and a floodlight is more suited to illuminating areas.
How bright are led light bulbs?
Led bulbs available for standard fixtures vary in brightness from less than
50 lumens up to about 3000 lumens. The brightest led bulbs for standard fixtures
are the floodlights and spotlights. The brightest of these uses about 11 watts
and produces light comparable to a 50-watt incandescent.
The non-directional led bulbs are best for lighting small areas, low-level
safety lighting, night-lights, mood lighting, or decorative accent lighting.
Using non-directional leds to replace incandescents for general room lighting is
not really practical at this time. Our brightest non-directional led bulb (102
leds) uses 10 watts to produce light comparable to a 40-watt incandescent. The
directional led bulbs are best for harlogen spotlights replacement.
How efficient are led bulbs compared to incandescent bulbs?
Most led light bulbs are four to five times as efficient as incandescent
bulbs. In other words, they use only 20% to 25% as much electricity to produce
the same amount of light. The newest generation of leds are eight to ten times
as efficient as incandescent bulbs. We use these new leds in our MR16 3W, GU10
3W, E26 3W, Power LED Track Light Bulb. It uses only 3 watts to output as much
as light as a 20-watt halogen!
·ABOUT AUTOMOBILE LED LAMPS
Which Color LEDs should I use?
For best results the LED color should be the same as the lens color. As an
example: a red lens will filter out all but the red portion of the light so if
the light is all red, none or very little light will be blocked by the lens. The
light from a White LED contains very little light in the red portion of the
visible spectrum so most of the light would be filtered out by a red lens.
Turn signal issues with LED bulbs
LED brake/tail lamps will not flash with thermal flasher units due to their
extremely low current draw. These installations will require an electronic
flasher unit, available in car bulb shopping (for some vehicles) or at your auto
parts store. Try to find flashers designed to work with LED bulbs; they will say
"LED compatible". Often HEAVY DUTY flashers will also work with LED bulbs.
Another fix is the installation of Load Resistors, which are wired across (in
parallel with) the turn signal bulbs to simulate the load of a standard filament
bulb.
Dash indicators reporting burnt out bulbs
LED bulbs may cause some newer vehicles to indicate a bulb is burnt out (because
of their low power consumption). Some cars indicate this by increasing the flash
rate of the turn signals, some turn on a bad bulb indicator. The only fix for
this is to install Load Resistors across the bulbs that are being indicated as
bad. Some vehicles will also disable the cruise control system if a brake light
bulb is being indicated as bad, the installation of Load Resistors will also
solve this problem.
Brightness of LED Car Bulbs
LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent bulbs, they have
many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life, faster on/off times, lower
power consumption, more vivid colors) but brightness is not one of them.
They are generally not as bright but some of them with large numbers of LEDs
will appear brighter than filament bulbs.
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.
Most LED bulbs emit light like a flashlight, all out the end. Regular filament
bulbs emit light from the end and all sides, so they will be better suited for
some lighting applications than LED bulbs.
This is the same reason why we do not rate LED car bulbs in lumens or watts,
they would be a deceptively low numbers because the light is measured from all
sides and the end on standard filament bulbs but only from the end on LED bulbs
Which LEDs bulbs are brightest?
More LED the bulbs with; brighter it will be,
T25 19LEDs are brighter than T25-12LEDs,
But more LEDs, it will be more expensive, so please select the matching to your
car with the right LED quantity and cost.
Are your bulbs standard size?
All of our Tail/Brake lights are the standard one-inch diameter
What is the difference between Narrow and wide viewing angle?
Some of our bulbs are available with Narrow or Wide viewing angle. The Wide
angle (approx. 100 degree beam) will light up more area but dimmer than the
Narrow angle. The Narrow angle (approx. 15 degree) will illuminate a smaller
area but brighter than the Wide angle. We also offer bulbs with some LEDs aiming
out the end of the bulb and some radically mounted LEDs aiming out the sides of
the bulb. These will provide a more complete and even light pattern on the
vehicle lens.
We cannot recommend which type would work best in your vehicle because it
depends on the size, shape and depth of your bulb housings. The Wide-angle bulbs
usually work best for most vehicles.
How do your LED bulbs achieve dual intensity?
All of our Tail/Brake bulbs achieve dual intensity modes by turning all of the
LEDs on dim or all of the LEDs on bright; all of the LEDs are always lit when
either mode is active.
If I install LED bulbs in the dash, will the dimmer still work?
Yes, LED bulbs will dim with your dash light intensity control, But it is
not dimmable very well.
Nearly all
dimmer commonly mounted in the wall or
for desk lamp. The Triac dimmer can work
perfectly with the incandescent light
bulb, but can not work with Solid
lighting or CFL lamp. Triac dimmer
cannot drive solid lighting directly,
since solid lighting is not pure
resistive load. It needs a special
driver to drive Light Emitting Diode.
And most of this driver cannot accept
Triac output to adjust Light Emitting
Diode brightness. Using our special
driver, we can dim the Light Emitting
Diode with triac dimmer.
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