Incandescent bulbs!

[YaR]

The interior bulbs for the front passengers are incandescent! Changing them to LEDs probably adds an extra few miles to range. I didn't think it was even legal to fit them to new products...

 

[Ian Key]

I doubt if it would add even add a mile over the lifetime of the car as they are only on when the front doors are open, as for the legality, I think it only applies to house light bulbs.
Quite a few owners have changed them for LEDs.

 

[Rolfe]

It better not be illegal to fit incandescent bulbs in a house.

 

[siteguru]

It's not illegal to fit them (if you still have them) ... but it is illegal (I think) for incandescent bulbs to still be sold to consumers.

Example linky.

 

[YaR]

Sure, I've changed them to LEDs too, I'm just astonished that in this day and age any car manufacturer would use them. If not LEDs, then I would have thought halogens would be the alternative. It's very odd how the light in the boot, glove box, etc are LED but these weren't.

 

[Deleted member 14300]

Has anyone swapped all the incandescent bulbs in the car? I take it that the rear lights are all old style.

 

[tsedge]

LED bulb replacements are technically legal inside the car but not outside, although there's no real mechanism for enforcing this outside headlight checks at MOTs.

 

[fnegroni]

I’ve read the MOT rules and the requirement for LEDs to be original fitment in a sealed unit applies to headlamps not indicators.

See section 4.1.4 for a definition of mandatory headlamps, and section 4.4 for requirement for indicators.

So indicators could technically be swapped for LEDs, except they will give CANBUS errors due to the reduced power draw and therefore they require a resistor in line with the light. Which is not a modification im keen on making at the moment.

 

[tsedge]

You are correct that the MoT test currently will only look at headlamps, which I already said.

That doesn't mean that LED replacements for other exterior lights are legal - there is no provision for them in the regulations at the moment (only like for like replacements).

This has been a grey area for years and is unlikely to cause a practical problem, but worth noting that it could under some circumstances.

 

[fnegroni]

Indeed I wouldn’t fit the majority of led replacement bulbs purely based on the fact they most likely perform poorly.
Having said that, the Philips Ultinon Pro 3100 do comply with European regulations as they are the only ECE certified side indicators I can find.

 

[Torryhun]

I’ve read the MOT rules and the requirement for LEDs to be original fitment in a sealed unit applies to headlamps not indicators.

See section 4.1.4 for a definition of mandatory headlamps, and section 4.4 for requirement for indicators.

So indicators could technically be swapped for LEDs, except they will give CANBUS errors due to the reduced power draw and therefore they require a resistor in line with the light. Which is not a modification im keen on making at the moment.

Myself & several other have changed rear indicator bulbs for LEDs and have no CANBUS problems.

 

[TheHypnoToad]

The interior bulbs for the front passengers are incandescent! Changing them to LEDs probably adds an extra few miles to range. I didn't think it was even legal to fit them to new products...

Each bulb uses 5W, I would say it would meters rather than miles to the range if you were to swap them for LED's

 

[fnegroni]

Myself & several other have changed rear indicator bulbs for LEDs and have no CANBUS problems.

What LEDs did you fit?
Was that on a trophy by any chance, not an SE?

 

[YaR]

Each bulb uses 5W, I would say it would meters rather than miles to the range if you were to swap them for LED's

Every little counts...

 

[TheHypnoToad]

Every little counts...

I agree, but it really is little in this example...
I thought I'd have a go at working out the extra range, I've tried to keep the numbers simple for this example:

Let's assume the MG4 does 6 KM per 1 KWh, which is equivelent to 6 meters per 1 Wh.
Let's also assume the pair of LED's use less power, lets say 4W instead of 10W
Let's assume for this example these lights are on for 1 minute per day
This means the incandescent bulbs will use a 6W for a minute: converting this to Wh we need to divide by 60 which gives us 0.1 Wh saved per day.

0.1 Wh will give us an extra 0.6 meters of range per day, or just less than 2 feet who prefer things in old measurements

 

[Ian Key]

Using the above example although I'm not sure about the calculations.
0.6 m x 365 days = 219 m per year or after 10 years 2.19 km / 1.36 miles

 

[johnb80]

Well putting figures in the good old Excel spreadsheet........

Incandescent Bulbs 5w x 2 = 10w
LED Bulb x 2 1.44w = 2.88w
Saving = 7.12w

Assuming theyre on for 30 seconds on entry and 30 seconds on exit the saving is 7.12w per minute.

Using 4.5miles / kWh
7.12w / 1000w = 0.00712 miles or 11.45 metres.

Assuming a return journey 22.9 metres per day - 10 years 83.5Km / 51 miles.

Assuming you pay 30p kWh = £3.40

The LED's cost approx 50p each, therefore breakeven takes 2.94 years


My name is john and I'm a spreadsheetaholic

 

[Ian Key]

Using John's calculations if you pay approximately 9p/kWh would it then take about 10 years to break even?

 

[YaR]

You can't put a price on the satisfaction you feel after replacing the dim watt filaments with lovely 2700K LEDs though.

 

[johnb80]

Using John's calculations if you pay approximately 9p/kWh would it then take about 10 years to break even?

9.8 years or if you're on intelligent @ 7.5p, 11.76 years

Yes, I know, get a life