MIKE ROSS wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 MR> "Roy J. Tellason" bravely wrote to "MIKE ROSS"
(25 Aug 03 
 MR> 20:01:27)  --- on the heady topic of "WATTS UP? KILOWATT-HOUR M"

 RJT> I've also noticed that more and more vehicles,  particularly on
 RJT> trucks,  are using LED taillights.  I guess when a bulb burns out they
 RJT> just replace it with an LED unit and don't have to worry about it for
 RJT> quite some time after that.  I'm a bit surprised at how far it's gone,
 RJT> though.

 MR> I might not count on that just yet. Some time back as you say I
 MR> started seeing them on tailights of trucks and city busses, but
 MR> recently I saw a truck where a good 1/3 of the led's were out. I
 MR> don't know if these had internal breaks or external circuit solder
 MR> cracking due to the usual road shaking.

 MR> I haven't seen them going out on street lights or busses so unless
 MR> they are being promptly replaced in these then there may be a
 MR> problem with vibration in heavy load vehicles.

I'd say it depends both on how they're made and on whether they're
installed properly.  I've known some really strange people to be working on
trucks,  and trailers...

 MR> I've read that the brightness of white leds is getting to the 
 MR> point that headlights will be next.

I heard that somewhere too.

 MR> I'll believe it when I see it 

Same here.

 MR> but I was thinking of bundling up a few and try them out on my 
 MR> bicycle light. It uses about 3 Watts right now (6Vac 0.5A) but if 
 MR> I can reduce this by a factor of 10 (6 leds at 50mW each) my legs 
 MR> will definitely thank me! 

I've already seen blinking ones for the rear light on bikes,  but they're
not nearly bright enough.

I've also seen LED flashlights for sale,  but haven't tried one out yet, 
to see how it compares.

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