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Don Klipstein

In , wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:18:48 -0500, Nate Nagel
wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:43:59 -0500, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I've seen LED replacments for tail lights. Any good? Dunno.
Would be nice to see fairly priced LED replace for household
bulbs. I've not seen them yet.

A lot of new cars already come equipped with LED tail Lights. They are
very bright, and if one LED fails, you still have a lot of light. The
only thing I don't like about them on my car is that there is no
warmth generated to de-ice the lenses in winter. Tail light lenses are
plastic, so there is a limit to how much you can do to clear them with
an ice scraper without scratching them.

Right, my original comment was referring to retrofitting
LEDs in an older vehicle. Nothing good seems to be available there, at
least not in a plug and play (or nearly so) solution.

I've seen plenty of direct replacements for 1157 incandescents,
complete with standard bayonet base.

And they produce less light than 1157s, have different directional
characteristics than 1157s, and produce light from different physical
locations than 1157s do. They do not achieve the same optical results,
and none of them have much chance of meeting specified upper and lower
limits of candela in every one of the dozens of specified directions in
any legally required motor vehicle external light fixture ever certified
to work properly with incandescents.

They do make street-legal LED fixtures to serve taillight, brake light,
rear turn signal, and backup light functions. They even make aftermarket
ones, though they generally fit more easily into buses and trucks than
into cars, pickups or SUVs.

- Don Klipstein )