If my bar only draws 7.2A then 20A wiring should be fine, I think.
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If my bar only draws 7.2A then 20A wiring should be fine, I think.
I found the 2013 TDV6 alternator is rated at 150amps so at max output it is good for around 2150W. The consensus is the vehicle will use 60% of the rated output at max load so that leaves about 850W . I reckon I would want about half that say 400W as excess so I have 450W to run extra devices.
Apparently there is a 10W LED chip and I even have found a 15W chip, jeez things move quickly it was not so long ago a 1W chip was mind blowing now 1 LED chip draws over an amp.
So one decent light bar will draw 250W and a pair of those 9" spotties will draw 300W (35x5W led chips each light).
If the specs are right for some of these quad row light bars you would run your battery into mush in a few hours of operation.
I never thought much about what a vehicles electrical system can handle till I started looking for a light bar usually just brought the biggest I could find and bung it on the car but this has started me thinking.
I wrote to 2 of these suppliers but no replies. They are probably selling stuff out of a bedroom and wouldn't have a clue anyway.
The reason they quote big numbers - Hilux drivers love it [emoji4]...
Good light is the sum of its parts...
Reliable
Useable
Suitable
If you want something very good..
50 inch ST2K Curved Super Drive 20 LED Light Bar
LED power is usually quoted in Lumens. Incandescant lights in watts. eg [table]Quote:
Originally Posted by terry1738
[TR]
[TD]1500 lm
[/TD]
[TD]= 100 W
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/table]
Watts current draw is measured in amps whereas led current draw is in Milli-amps
Using ohms law ........watts (w) = current (I) * volts (V) or W=I*V in watts.
To obtain the current draw of the above example 100watts is calculated as I=W/V or 100/12= 8.3333amps.
I hope this will clarify things for you.
That would be 103.68w.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
Even the brand name ones are full of rubbish in there specs.
Highly Recommend the STEDI range, the chip power supplies are very stable. They've also got good local backup. And they've rated all their lights at the newer rating system of 1Lux at * Measured distance.
STEDI LED Light Bars | Australia
Heard a "good rumor' that they may come from the same production line that the Lightforce range is produced from
Why does anyone "need" 1,000w + of LED light ? Not for road use,- glare from roadside peg reflectors would be distracting and big signs .... For off-road. There's still no point in illuminating your destination from 10 km away.
Better to put the lumens where YOU need them .
Complaints have been received from the International Space Station.!
Don't tell anyone, but 10x100 watt/lumen/whatever measure you use, leds, doesn't equal 1000 watts of usable light. Each element is producing 100 whatevers. That's all you get. Whether there's 1, 10 or 100 of them. They don't stack on each other, they are side by side. The only thing that increases is the total current draw.Quote:
Originally Posted by superquag
Supacentre harnesses and any harness supplied by ebay sellers that are included are usually " fit to the price " not " fit for the purpose ".
I'm a bit lazy , going to the hassle of running cable etc. I prefer to make a custom over-spec harness neat and tidy and the job only done once.
Supacentre harness cost them $9 , a decent quality relay is more than $9....
I have pulled many cheap harnesses out for people and installed a custom made one.
last one cost the owner $220 , should have taken pictures once I had removed the rats nest and finished it was hard to tell that any aftermarket wiring was done.
High wattage claims are generally equivalent to incandescent output , not actual . It is a marketing tactic to suck in the young Hilux and Ranger owners who lift their wheels at the local shopping mall aka "mallcrawlers".
10W LED yes they exist, if driven at 100% duty cycle this is the power drawn, however to make them efficient and not over heat they are driven with what is essentially a constant current switch mode power supply , cheaper light arrays use cheap drivers with very little RF filtering and when you turn them on your radio sounds like a snow storm, they effectively are white noise generators.
next thing to consider is colour temp in kelvin eg. 6500K 6000K 5000K , 6500K is one of the cheapest colours to produce and is starting to get too blue for decent colour rendering for the human eye, 6000K is about the maximum you want to pick. 5000K are much better visually than 6500K but 3 to 4 time the price to produce. basically anything with 6500K is at the bottom end. 6000K mid and then 5000K ( pure white) mid to high.
I have a set of 9" 5000K LED driving lights 185W per side , much nicer and better light than the similar 9" lights with 6500K , the cost price of the 5000K lights was $260 USD the 6500K cost price was $79 USD which are a very popular light sold here in Australia.
One good set of lights can be better than a set of driving lights and a huge lightbar.