Led Headlight Buying Guide: The Factors You Should Know

Frequently, questions arise on the topics of product selection, installation, parts approval. All lighting on a vehicle must meet the ECE R48. Among other things, it regulates:

– Number of headlights (e.g., low beam headlights two pieces, front)
– permissible mounting location (e.g., side distance, height)
– required visibility angle (from which angle, for example, turn signals must be visible)
– required beam angle (fog lights must be able to beam 45 ° outwards, for example)
– Circuit (when may or must something work)

Headlight and light failure control systems

The on-board electronics and diagnostic systems of most vehicle models designed for conventional lights make it a little problematic, for example, on halogen turn signals or xenon headlights. However, modern LED units are real marvels which, among other things, have the advantage of using far less energy. This lower load of the LED now classifies the on-board electronics as a fault, since it considers the lower power values as an indication of a defect.

You could install resistors in the cable harnesses. In the best-case scenario, this would lead to unnecessary loss of performance. The saving effect of an LED solution would be gone.

Thermal management/airflow

Both the luminous efficacy and the service life of an LED module depend crucially on thermal management. The targeted use of heat sinks makes a fundamental contribution to thermal management. The most important factor for the correct operating temperature of an LED is good thermal management.

Excessively high temperatures have shown to have a direct impact on the service life, and luminous flux, both for the individual LED component and the complex LED module. For this reason, it is necessary to remove the heat from the semiconductor chip using design measures (for example, heat sinks).

Light color (Kelvin, K)

A light color is the purely subjective perception of light temperature. The complete spectrum from warm white to daylight white can cover with h11 led bulb. The daylight-like light color is of particular importance for vehicle lighting. The term light color will explain using a charcoal grill.

Luminous flux (lumens, lm)

Luminous flux [lumens, lm] is the total amount of light emitted by a light source in all directions. Lumen describes the complete light emitted from a light source on all sides. The lumen value provides no information about how the light distributed in the room. A distinction must make between measured lumens and calculated lumens.

The concept of luminous flux can illustrate using the distinction between low and high beam. The low beam generally has a higher luminous flux than the high beam, but the high beam is brighter due to the way the light distribute on the road.

Illuminance (lux, lx)

Illuminance, measured in lux, is a measure of the amount of light (luminous flux) that strikes a surface of a certain size. The formula for this is: Lux = lumen / area (m 2 ).

The illuminance is inversely proportional to the surface. If the number of lumens (luminous flux) remains constant and the surface changes, the illuminance (lux number) also changes.