LED versus Halogen lights

[Phil the drill]

I recently read on another cycle forum that LED lights, whilst good on dry roads, do not seem to light up wet roads as well as older Halogen ones.
Well today I cycled home from work down my local totally black lanes and discovered for myself that this appears to be true. I have a total of 320 lumens of Cree LED's (2 x 160) and whilst good where the road was dry, the light just didn't seem to light up the road where it was very wet as well as my old halogen set up ! Curious. Anybody else had the same experence? If so would a change of colour make any difference? Do different LED's vary in this respect? This is my first proper test of LED lights, having used an old Cateye Halogen 2 x 10w set up for several previous years - I have to say I'm a little disappointed.
Another ineresting point, 320 lumens shone down the back garden looks great, but where does does all the light go when riding down a steep hill on a dark lane ?
Incidentally, it wasn't helped by a mounting system that kept getting loose and wobbling the lights from side to side. Arrived home looking (and feeling) Like 'Mad-eye' Moody

Phil

 

[bogmonster]

I think a good halogen setup will certainly give LEDs a run for thier money. Overvolted halogen is as efficient as LEDs with a carefull choice of bulb and it is much easier to focus. While many don't like the yellow of halogen it is actually better under certain conditions. I am using 1 x 20w halogen with large mr16s and they work very well and better than most LED srtups I have seen.

 

[Phil the drill]

I think a good halogen setup will certainly give LEDs a run for thier money. Overvolted halogen is as efficient as LEDs with a carefull choice of bulb and it is much easier to focus. While many don't like the yellow of halogen it is actually better under certain conditions. I am using 1 x 20w halogen with large mr16s and they work very well and better than most LED srtups I have seen.

Thanks,

What do you use to power your lights? I have an old lead acid set up which is both heavy and only runs for approx 45-50 mins on full - not enough for a round trip (I need over one hour). I don't really want to carry two chargers to work! It's difficult to find a decent high cap 6v battery (NiCd / NimH /Li - ion), that can be easily fitted on to the bike.

Cheers, Phil

 

[bogmonster]

Thanks,

What do you use to power your lights? I have an old lead acid set up which is both heavy and only runs for approx 45-50 mins on full - not enough for a round trip (I need over one hour). I don't really want to carry two chargers to work! It's difficult to find a decent high cap 6v battery (NiCd / NimH /Li - ion), that can be easily fitted on to the bike.

Cheers, Phil

I am using 2 7.2v 4.5ah remote control car racing packs wired in series. These will just about fit in a drinks bottle and then placed in water bottle cage. To get down to 13.2v (overvolting) or various other voltages I am using a regulator. There are quite a few 6v MR11 bulbs that will run happily and very brightly, though with a significantly reduced life at 7.2v.

 

[Mussels]

Thanks,

What do you use to power your lights? I have an old lead acid set up which is both heavy and only runs for approx 45-50 mins on full - not enough for a round trip (I need over one hour). I don't really want to carry two chargers to work! It's difficult to find a decent high cap 6v battery (NiCd / NimH /Li - ion), that can be easily fitted on to the bike.

Cheers, Phil

Now you have discovered where LEDs beat halogen by a long way, my main beam LED uses 3 AA batteries which I charge up at work each day after 2.5 hours use.
If I was to have 20W worth of LEDs then the path would be incredibly bright.

 

[essexman]

I recently read on another cycle forum that LED lights, whilst good on dry roads, do not seem to light up wet roads as well as older Halogen ones.
Another ineresting point, 320 lumens shone down the back garden looks great, but where does does all the light go when riding down a steep hill on a dark lane ?

Phil

Interesting observation, i;ve never heard it before. My first thought is that shining a light down the garden isnt the same as going 30mph on a bike. At 30mph you have no time at all to absorb whats happening, so you need a lot of light to confirm observations vs the garden, where you can stand and absorb it and your mind already knows what it looks like.

There may be something in the yellow light theory....

 

[bogmonster]

Now you have discovered where LEDs beat halogen by a long way, my main beam LED uses 3 AA batteries which I charge up at work each day after 2.5 hours use.
If I was to have 20W worth of LEDs then the path would be incredibly bright.

Sorry Mussels but I think you are over simplifying this somewhat. Have a read of the following thread where people who know far more about this thanI do explain in detail:

Bike Light: LED vs. Halogen - CandlePowerForums

You will also notice that high power LED setups have very complex heatsink arrangments to keep things cool. It is a miss-conception that high lumen LEDs run cool. Heat is wated energy when talking about lights. LED is more efficient if you underdrive so LED is OK for low lumen (or very large number of LEDs which presents a very different issue - mainly getting a good light throw and focussing).

LED solutions for low lumens solutions work well. Halogen for high lumen efficiency if you overdrive is good. My halogens last for about 5.5 hours on low, 3 hours on medium and about 2 hours on high. Still working out the timings.

On balance I think LED and halogen are on a par at the moment each with advantages and dissadvantages. For a city light I would go halogen, for illuminating dark country roads halogen is out on top IMHO. HIDs win over LED and Halogen hands down but at a financial cost.

BM.

 

[john]

LED efficiency has increased rapidly over the last couple of years.

Test show LEDs to be more than 4 times as efficient as halogen. So if you don't want to carry around lots of batteries for you lights there is not contest.

http://www.ledlighting.co.za/uploads/20W Halogen spotlight vs 3W LED.pdf

 

[Phil the drill]

Now you have discovered where LEDs beat halogen by a long way, my main beam LED uses 3 AA batteries which I charge up at work each day after 2.5 hours use.
If I was to have 20W worth of LEDs then the path would be incredibly bright.

I agree that they have a much longer run time, but the quality of the light is, I'm afraid definitely inferior on wet, black tracks. If I was to have 20w of LED's I think I'd be broke......20w of halogen lighting is much cheaper!

Phil