what is equivalent?

what is the led equivalent TO A 55W bulb?

trying to work out what led lights to buy for a light bar

there isnt one.......

55w (watts) is the amount of power the bulb draws - ie12Volts x 4.5Amps.

an LED is a low watt, high output device, so you acnt compare like with like.

The only value you can realistically use is the Lumen output (amount of light). Unfortunately thos figures are rarely, if every, given.

The other thing to be aware of is that LEDs give a very bright output, but a much lower depth of light, which is the primary reason that they are only just able to make replacement Headlights with LEDs.

What MHM is correct,but to give an example,I have relaced 350w outside flood lights with 10w led ones-sure they are not as bright,but adequate for what I want.Be surprised if you need anything more than 10w or 20w for a light bar if you are fitting a few.

The Mad Hat Man said:

there isnt one.......
..

The only value you can realistically use is the Lumen output (amount of light). Unfortunately thos figures are rarely, if every, given.

The other thing to be aware of is that LEDs give a very bright output, but a much lower depth of light, which is the primary reason that they are only just able to make replacement Headlights with LEDs.

Click to expand...

LED headlights have been around for several years. The Nolden BiLeds headlights are currently the brightest road legal LED headlights with a measured light output of 1700 lumens. They also have one of the highest IP rating going of IP 6K9K

The lumen output of many LED lights are given, however how meaningful are these figures.

Raw Lumens are a calculation of what is the maximum possible theoretical light output of the LED unit.

Effective Lumens is another calculation and is the calculated raw lumen figure minus losses due to thermal, optical, electrical losses etc.

Actual LEDs come in a range of quality. The nominal figure often used is 90 lumens per watt which is at the higher end of light output for good quality LEDs

Now do the many cheap version of LED light bars use the highest grade most expensive LEDs??

IF only one figure for Lumens is given then it will be the higher theoretical light output for the best possible LED working in perfect conditions. The chances of cheap LED light units using the best quality LED with the best quality driver units with the highest IP rating is minimal to put it politely.


To the best of my knowledge Nolden LED headlights are the only ones which give a figure for light output which is actually measured in a light tunnel.


Brendan

that may not help on a lightbar.

I believe you'll still find that metal haylide (often called Xenon) are the most efficient of lighting, when looking at Watt per Lumen.

However for a light bar then LED's are definitely more robust.