Lisa has LEDs now

[GasSavers_Diemaster]

got my $110 order in from www.superbirghtleds.com. heres the list if your intrested

2x 3156 red - rear turnsignals
2x 7443 red - rear brake / running
2x 194 red - rear sidemarker
1x 7440 red - high-mount brake
2x 921 wht - backup lts
2x 194 wht - licance plate
1x festoon wht - rear domelight
3x 194 wht - front dome / maplights
1x 74 blue - hibeams idot lite
4x 74 grn - turnsignal idot lite / cruse light / imoblizer light
2x 7443 amber - front sidemarker / turnsignals
2x 194 wht - front running lights

so evreybulb but but the headlights, (future foglights) and climate control / other dash is leds now

*** see my for sale thread for led lights form helga. EDIT: pending sale

[FormulaTwo]

Awesome.
Let me know how the interior lights work.
I recently picked up a set of 6 for my car off of ebay for $17 and returned the two 1157 taillights LEDs ($18) I purchased from Autozone.

the ebay set has (two brake lights, 4 amber corners) 1157's,1156's

My reverse lights do not work at all. So i doubt i will do those.
I have to buy a set for the license plate, and one for the interior light. Not sure what I am going to do with the instrument panel etc...

[cfg83]

Diemaster -

This is most excellent. Have you done a before/after electrical load calculation for this?

This is like converting your house to flourescent lights!

CarloSW2

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by cfg83

This is most excellent. Have you done a before/after electrical load calculation for this?

Each car seems to have a different mix of bulbs it requires. So how much power you can save from LEDs varies with the mix of bulbs in the car. However, in the case of my CRX, my calculation came out to several amps of power saved if/when I am using most of the (secondary) lights.

FWIW: One thing I did notice, is that I now worry much less about the power usage of the secondary lights (i.e. all the lights, except for the headlights) then I used to, as the power usage is a small fraction of what it used to be. As a result, I now turn on my secondary lights much more in "marginal visibility" situations (for example, overcast days), where I don't personally need my (power sucking) headlights, but I want to make it easier for other cars to see me.

Originally Posted by cfg83

This is like converting your house to flourescent lights!

For white light, that is approximately true (i.e. many white LED units give you about the same power savings, over incandescent bulbs, that you get with florescent lights). However, some of the newest LEDs are actually about twice as energy efficient as florescents, even for white. And LEDs often focus better as well (so more of the light can go where you want it to go).

In addition, with red/amber/green (i.e. colored) lights, you have an extra bonus (and therefore really win). This is because to get colored light out of white (incandescent) light, you often have to throw 2/3 of the light away (at the colored lens), to get the color you want. But if you put a colored LED behind a colored lens (of the same color), virtually all the light goes through that lens. So you will get an additional effective 2x-4x light boost (over and above the higher natural efficiency of LEDs over incandescent bulbs), when you are talking about colored light. This can result in such effects as a 1157 brake/tail LED light using under 2 watts on high (vs around 28 watts for the incandescent), and yet still being BRIGHTER than the incandescent bulb it replaces!

BTW: I haven't yet replaced my dash lights, as I haven't yet figured out how to remove the dash frame without breaking anything (I unscrew it, but it stays connected, probably some plastic snaps I can't see). However, once I figure that one out, I would love to replace the dash lights with LEDs (saving another 20+ watts of power), as I think I'm currently using more power for the dash (which is still incandescent) than all the exterior secondary lights combined (as all exterior lights, except for the headlights and fog lights, are now all energy efficient LEDs)...

[thisisntjared]

nice work!! i think the project i really want to take on is the gauge cluster. swap it all out for amber. did you get the resistors for the blinkers?

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by thisisntjared

nice work!! i think the project i really want to take on is the gauge cluster. swap it all out for amber. did you get the resistors for the blinkers?

Resistors aren't the way to do things, unless you have no choice. And this is especially true if you are switching to LEDs to save power.

Remember, if you go with resistors, you are essentially using just as much electricity and heat as if you went with incandescent bulbs to begin with (i.e. the resisters are just wasting the power savings the LEDs would otherwise give you)! Hardly a win from a FE standpoint...

OTOH you can (often) avoid the power wasting resisters, if you just switch out your flasher unit for an electronic one (that can flash properly with the lower current LED units).

[GasSavers_Diemaster]

i figure curent draw like this: it gives me a nice rounded out figure

2A per brake, turn, running light, (115x)
1A per 194 / 168
.2-.4A for 74

leds:
devide by 10
so .2A for 115x

so (2Ax12) + (1Ax13) + (.3Ax5) + (~.2A[for others / festoon]x1) = ~ 40 amps

at night when all of the above are working at the same time that counts

also u can modify the stock blinker to flash leds. DIY led blink comming soon.....

[cfg83]

Diemaster -

Originally Posted by Diemaster

...
so (2Ax12) + (1Ax13) + (.3Ax5) + (~.2A[for others / festoon]x1) = ~ 40 amps
.....

40 Amps is fantastic! Is there a way to maybe plug an ammeter into the cigarette lighter in order to monitor the amperage being sucked out of the system? That way, I could do a real-world before/after consumption analysis.

Every little bit counts!!!!

CarloSW2

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by cfg83

40 Amps is fantastic!

Much as I'm a fan of LEDs, I think 40 amps (about 550 watts) is a rather high estimate for most cars. Yes, in theory it could be that high with some cars, but that would assume you are running light combos that don't make much sense (such as your backup lights on at the same time as your turn signals and brake lights)...

Here are the aprox saving (i.e. aprox difference between LED energy use, and incandescent energy use) numbers as I've been able to figure them out. Total up the total watt savings (for all bulbs you are expecting to actively run), and divide by 14 to get real world amp savings:

Bulb                 ~Watt savings
168 (common wedge)       4 1/2
921                      8
1157/3157 low            9
1156/3156               26
1157/3157 high          26
194                      2
67                       8
Dome lights              4 1/2
74 (dash indicator)      2

NOTE:
These are just aprox values that I've come up with, and they do vary with the exact power of the incandescent and LED you are using, so YMMV.

Also, keep in mind that you only get the savings when you would otherwise have the light on. For example, if you replace two 1157 tail/brake lights with LED modules, you would save nothing when your lights are off (because with either style bulbs, they don't use any power when off), aprox 18 watts (about 1.3 amps) when your tail lights are on (because the tail lights only use the "low" setting of the 1157 bulbs), and only the "full" 50+ watts (over 3.5 amps) during those times when you have your brake lights on. Likewise, turn signal lights use a lot of power, but you only use that power when the turn signals are on (and even then, if you have an electronic flasher, only when the lights are in their "flash on" state).

Of course, none of this means that you can't save substantial power if/when you switch many car lights over to LEDs. I just didn't want people to make the false assumption that every LED you replace will always save you a lot of power. Instead, converting to LEDs only saves you power when you would otherwise have the light on anyway. So lights that are routinely off (and switched on for a short time only) don't save you nearly as much power overall as they might first appear (as the power savings with such lights, is your savings on that light only when it is on, and no savings power savings when it is off). It might still be useful to swap such lights for LEDs (if only to keep them from burning out at annoying times), but from a power savings (for cost) standpoint, such "lower use" lights are less "cost effective" than lights left on for hours (which means that the first lights you want to replace, unless you aren't planning to replace them all anyway, are ones you run a "lot" (such as): tail lights, license plate lights, running lights, dash lights, etc)...

[thisisntjared]

Originally Posted by DracoFelis

Resistors aren't the way to do things, unless you have no choice. And this is especially true if you are switching to LEDs to save power.

Remember, if you go with resistors, you are essentially using just as much electricity and heat as if you went with incandescent bulbs to begin with (i.e. the resisters are just wasting the power savings the LEDs would otherwise give you)! Hardly a win from a FE standpoint...

i know but,

Originally Posted by DracoFelis

OTOH you can (often) avoid the power wasting resisters, if you just switch out your flasher unit for an electronic one (that can flash properly with the lower current LED units).

i didnt know that this option was out there.