LED bulbs and PV panel

[sunhunter]

I decided to try to limit the amount of energy wasted using the dc/dc converter. So here is what I have done so far:

1) 3 watt PV panel (ebay vw solar panel) suction cupped to the inside rear window at the top. I used an RCA M/F 6' cable and cut it in two 2' from the M end. I removed the dome light assembly and hard wired the 4' F section to it (center positive) with a reverse blocking diode. I then used a piece of steel pallet strapping as a fish and shoved it above the headliner from the hatch to the dome light opening. The F connector was then taped to the end if the fish and pulled back to the hatch area. Then I put the light assembly back in. The 2' M cable was soldered to the PV panel wire and insulated with electrical tape and covered with some heat shrink. The connectors are mated above the headliner.

2) I ordered LED bulbs from http://www.superbrightleds.com

Used WLED-W6 to replace the dome bulbs, license plate light, and the two forward pointing parking lights.
Used 7443-R15 to replace the brake light bulbs.
Used 3022-W4 to replace the hatch light bulb.

LIGHTING ENERGY SAVINGS:
The dome lights and hatch light are hardly ever on so not much energy will be saved. I like the cool white hint of blue much better than the stock yellowish color though.

When the parking lights or headlights are on there is a good amount of power saved and since they are on for long periods of time there should be pretty good energy savings.

PARKING LIGHTS ON (brake pedal not pressed):
STOCK = 35W (tailights 10W, license plate 5W, parking lights 10W, side markers 10W)
LED = 12W (tailights 1W, license plate 0.3W, parking lights 0.6W, side markers 10W)
SAVINGS = 23W

PARKING LIGHTS ON (brake pedal pressed):
STOCK = 70W (tailights 42W, center brake 3.1W, license plate 5W, parking lights 10W, side markers 10W)
LED = 16W (tailights 2.2W, center brake 3.1W, license plate 0.3W, parking lights 0.6W, side markers 10W)
SAVINGS = 54W

[james]

I'm a little confused. Where does the solar panel come in? Is it charging the 12V battery all day, or just helping run the system when driving?

[sunhunter]

The dome light fixture is connected to the battery through a fuse. You may have noticed that you can turn on the dome lights even when you do not have the key in the car. This provided an easy location to hook the PV panel up to the 12V battery. The PV panel charges the 12V battery (when it is in sunlight).

[joecvt]

I'm glad that you made that clear as most of those lights are used
at night and I did not get where the solar panel comes into play.

JoeCVT - Just your average CVT owner

[james]

"You may have noticed that you can turn on the dome lights..."

Actually, no, I hadn't noticed that - or if I did it didn't register. Makes sense now!

Now if the darned LED bulb replacements weren't $15-20 each last time I checked...

[Rick]

How do the led's look? I tired some drop in led bulbs a while back and they would have deffinitely caused me to be rear ended. Though, the clusters I had just had a few led's pointing forward so there was no light in the housing really. Some of the newer ones I've seen have led's pointing in every possible direction which would give you adequate light projection in the housing.

Also, if the led clusters I had were in fact properly wired then the Insight criss crosses the polarity on their brake/running light's causing one fuse or the other to blow when the brake or running lights were turned on depending on which way I had the blub in.

Please post some pictures.

[sunhunter]

The bulb type 194 (dome and others) were replaced with the WLED-W6 type LED. These are about the same size as the 194 and have a cluster of six white 9000mcd leds pointing straight out. They are almost as bright as the 5 watt stock 914 bulbs. They were $3.64 each.

The hatch bulb is 3022-W4 type LED. It has a cluster of four white 5800mcd leds and is almost as bright as the 3.4 watt stock incandescent bulb. It was $2.64.

The bulb type 7443 (tail lights) were replaced with the 7443-R15 type LED. These are about the same size as the 7443 and have a cluster of nine red leds pointing straight out and six red leds pointing radially. They seem to be just as bright as the stock 7443 bulbs. The tail light housing is not filled out much. You can clearly see the led cluster. When I was installing them, I put in one and left the incandecent in the other. They look very different, but are the same brightness. I like the LED look much better as it matches the center brake light. Inside the LED bulb assembly there is visible two bridge rectifiers (one for each circuit) so polarity does not matter. They were $6.99 each.

I spent a lot of money doing this, but hey, I like spending some gas savings on cool upgrades for my car. Here is the break down:
6 X $3.64 = $21.84
1 X $2.64 = $2.64
2 X $6.99 = $13.98
Shipping = $5.00
TOTAL = $43.46

[IamIan]

if you are trying to save power.... You may also want to do the power stering removal mod ... discussed a bit ago... granted power stering uses power when you ster and generally not so much when you don't ... but I would imagine it would save you more than the 54Watts you are saving with the light mod... although together you might start to save a significant ( over 100 Watts ) amount of power.



just a thought

[b1shmu63]

I had the steering mod in for a while but then took it out. Using it could alter the anti locking brake function and when I measured the current used it was so low as to be relatively insignificant.

I really like your idea of Led lighting though. You won't have to worry about them burning out either. The prices seem very good too.

[dtlee]

Anyone else tried this recently?

I would love to replace all my corner lights (parking, f & r) with LED's to save some wattage... are there newer, brighter LED's? I don't want to replace at the expense of brightness....