Originally Posted by
tdister
Seriously?
Automotive taillight bulbs are generally less than 10 watts, the brake lights having less than 30 each. They are also regular incandescent vs halogen. High beams are often in the 60 watt range and are halogen.
I have no idea what the newer Automotive LED tail lights are running but they are nowhere near what this Dinotte is putting out in it's relatively tiny point of light vs the spread out beam and overall true area of the cars taillight.
Include the facts that the LEDs almost aways used for bikes are much more efficient at turning that wattage into light, auto brake/tail lights have the majority of their lumens filtered by the colored lens and that they aren't anywhere near as directional as the average bicycle light means your argument is way off base.
I just went out and put my brake light on a multimeter and it was drawing 4.5amps, that's 54 watts. I also know this because I have an air-pump that also has a light that is the same as the one in my tail-light and I have hooked to a car battery charger that shows the amperage draw, which in this pump (without the pump running) was 5amps or 60 watts(that's why I said 60 watts in the first place). Don't forget that these lights are behind very thick red plastic and need to compensate for that. It might look like 10 watts after passing through 1/4 colored plastic.
Chris
Edit: What you are saying is true about the light being more spread out. Headlights tend to be far more efficient than taillights which is why they are so much brighter. Either way, especially in the city, the brighter the better. This light might be too bright for a country road, but when you are competing with the road lights, other people's brakelights and the lights of on-coming heavy traffic, it's easy to get missed.