LED LIGHTS
My wife can't stand the led lights on our new T.T. she would like to change them to a more warm looking type. I told her that's going to cost us an arm and a leg if we are going to change every light ...
Forum Discussion
most often what is installed is similar to a cool white, 4500 K or so.
Warm white, near an incandesent bulb is 3200K, normal incandesent is 2800K
so look for color temperature.
One warning on cheap replacements. LED's want to be driven by a constant current. the good ones have a circuit that holds the current constant. the cheap ones have a dropping resistor. Converter comes on, voltage goes to 14ish volts, current goes up, LED junction voltage drops 2.2mv/C as the LED heats up, increasing current more, pretty soon you end up with a dead LED or one that gets hot enough to unsolder itself. (seen that happen)
Or battery voltage drops, LED's get pretty dim quickly. At least that doesn't do any damage.
Downside of the ones that regulate current is if not done properly the can give interference to TV/radio etc.
A few years ago good ones were spendy, but today good ones with regulator are reasonably priced and much more common than a few years ago.
Warm white, near an incandesent bulb is 3200K, normal incandesent is 2800K
so look for color temperature.
One warning on cheap replacements. LED's want to be driven by a constant current. the good ones have a circuit that holds the current constant. the cheap ones have a dropping resistor. Converter comes on, voltage goes to 14ish volts, current goes up, LED junction voltage drops 2.2mv/C as the LED heats up, increasing current more, pretty soon you end up with a dead LED or one that gets hot enough to unsolder itself. (seen that happen)
Or battery voltage drops, LED's get pretty dim quickly. At least that doesn't do any damage.
Downside of the ones that regulate current is if not done properly the can give interference to TV/radio etc.
A few years ago good ones were spendy, but today good ones with regulator are reasonably priced and much more common than a few years ago.
