Brightness of LED Car Bulbs

LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent bulbs, they have many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life, faster on/off times, lower power consumption, more vivid colors) but brightness is not one of them. They are generally not as bright but some of them with large numbers of LEDs, will appear brighter than filament bulbs. As an exception, our new 3 Watt and 5 Watt Luxeon LED Car Bulbs are as bright or brighter than most standard filament car bulbs. The light is distributed differently so they can appear brighter in some applications and not as bright in others, it depends on the size and shape of the bulb housing and reflector.

Most LED bulbs emit light like a flashlight, all out the end. Regular filament bulbs emit light from the end and all sides, so they will be better suited for some lighting applications than LED bulbs. This is the same reason why we do not rate LED car bulbs in lumens or watts, the numbers would be deceptively low because the light is measured from all sides and the end on standard filament bulbs but only from the end on LED bulbs.