Topic: Environment friendly running light.

[Deltarider]

Every now and then we read in this forum that people change the conventional bulbs in their indicators and brakelights for Ledlamps.
For me personal it's not interesting and not worth the trouble. There's another lamp however that, replaced by a led, could save Watts and fuel considerably.
For other than the USmarket, headlight reflectors generally are equipped with an extra lampsocket that houses a small 4 Wattslamp. That BA9s lamp is often referred to as pilot lamp, city light, marker light, whatever.
Wouldn't it be interesting to replace that 4 Watts bulb by a 4 Watts led?
Leds produce considerable more light and maybe for daytime use it's enough to run this ledlamp for safety instead of the powerconsuming headlamp that produces primarily heat. That - in daytime - will save about 40 Watts to generate and so saves fuel.
If you google, one will find a variety of BA9s Ledlamps that can replace that conventional bulb. Some have even four or more leds fitted. I would prefer one that spreads it's light so it will use the reflector as much as possible. Has any of you experience with this?
Who can advise what Ledlamp is most suitable?

[dave500]

ill remember to turn off my headlight next time im going up a hill,,if its worth it to save fuel its a gain in power right???

[mono]

here you go, Delta:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&category=755&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2Fba9s_1led.htm&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=base&utm_content=BA9s-x&utm_campaign=GoogleBaseChild&gclid=CIPig5-R07ICFYFo4AodLlkAfA

saw these the other day while i was working on my LED indicator light project.  they are 180-degree bulbs, so should project light outward and to the reflector dish.

if the "cool white" isn't bright enough, they may have other bulbs on the website.  these are just a very inexpensive option.   it would be fun to run the UV light hahaha.

[flybox1]

Delta - I agree w mono's thought to go to superbright leds for your ba9s bulbs, but if i had these 4W running light bulbs, i'd want as bright as possible. so i'd go with these....

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/ba9s-ba7s/ba9s-led-bulb-9-led-tower/9/

the cool white color, is the brightest, has a slight light blue tint similar to euro HID auto headlight color, and a super-wide beam pattern.

[Deltarider]

Thanks. Anyone with a Bosch, Hella or similar reflector who did this?

[phil71]

i hate to break this to you, but watts are a measurement of  consumption, not luminosity. a 4w bulb draws the same current as a 4w led. i'd expect that LED to be about 8x brighter and last 10x as long, but it wont cut down on how much 'juice' you use.

[Deltarider]

Sorry you misunderstood me. I know what Watts mean. My goal is not to save power in relation to that tiny 4 Watt bulb, but to see if a led with it's extra light can be used to be seen during daylight. So we can switch of the 40 Watt or 55Watt (halogen) many of us run now. That conventional little bulb clearly can't do that, but maybe a Led can. 55 Watts or around 5 Watts is a big difference in consumption.