LED lighting

[mike ellis]

Another view of the legality of LED bulbs here. Read Issue 5 2017.

 

http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/members-pages/newsletter-archive/

[Lebro]

So to summarise, for the older TR's sidelights, tail lights, stop lights & number plate lights are all OK if LED.

Headlamp & indicators not because of failing the minimum wattage requirement.

As (for TR2,3) side & indicator, also tail & indicator are in 1 bulb, in theory they would also not be legal on the grounds of not enough watts.

Well at least that's some progress towards sanity.

Bob.

[TR5tar]

Interesting, thanks Mike. The conclusion regarding sidelights, tail lights, stop lights & number plate lights, at least where pre- early 1970s cars are concerned, seems at odds with what I took from the article in TR Action. I've got stop and tail LED bulbs in my 5 which I want to keep, but I have been worried about the legality since the TR Action article, so if the FBHVC is correct then I'll be very happy.

 

Cheers, Darren

[TorontoTim]

Seems to me that using wattage as the legal standard is a bit outdated.

[tthomson]

+1 Toronto Tim,

 

Watts are rate of emission of Joules per second (i.e. the rate of energy emitted).

A while ago I worked out the actual light output to wattage for incandescent lamps and for LEDs. in short, LEDs are 10 times more efficient at turning electricity into light output than an incandescent lamp. i.e 90% of the energy radiated from an incandescent lamp, operating at its correct voltage, is heat. LEDS emit 90% of their energy as light.

 

They should be quoting minimum Lumens directly in line with the lamp, and the minimum spread of the light at a specified second value in Lumens.

They may also want to specify a maximum value for direct line Lumens to prevent excessive dazzle.

 

All of this is easily measured with the right light sensing devices, so it should be easily within the scope of a tester's ability.

 

TT