Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Cost Effectiveness or Lumen per

Has anyone else wondered what it costs for each of these lumen of light energy we are throwing out there?

After half an hour of scrolling through on-line catalogs for headlight data and costs it seems that some of the stronger systems give you 1 to 1.5 lumen per dollar. Several low power systems give you .3 to .45 lumen per dollar. One DIY system I know of gave 10 lumen per dollar.

So if I ever buy another light I'll do some serious work before I blow $200 to $500 on it. Any votes for which system gives the best bang for the buck?

I run a dyno (http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=186066) so each lumen costs a little sip of energy drink or nibble on a snack.

The best lumen/dollar is a DIY halogen system.

Yep Znomit. Could be, could be. I am thinking in terms of the up front cost (dyno hub, circuits, and DIY parts) divided into the output (200 Lumen from some Luxeon type emitters). Please, what would the parts cost. I am running a DIY halogen (ALA Pig chaser) with enough power that I have to let the power company feed it. A 100 watt halogen bulb at 19.2 lumen per watt (wikipedia) or 1920 lumen divided by$200 in parts (Powersonic charger, batteryspace battery, and Autoparts shop for light and holder. I get 9.6 lumen per dollar.

You might want to take a look at RoadBikeReview.com's (mostly) LED headlight shootout http://reviews.roadbikereview.com/blog/category/led-light-shootout/. As they point out, published lumen ratings are often for the naked bulb, not the light assembly as a whole. The review measured light output in a consistent way using a photo light meter, and publishes a table listing the price, "claimed lumens" and measured "ambient lux" for each light. While it doesn't caculate lux/$, it's easy enough to copy-paste the data into a spreadsheet to perform your own calculation.

I am thinking in terms of the up front cost (dyno hub, circuits, and DIY parts) divided into the output

Geeze, Ok, for the whole lot (http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=186066) ... US$

The dyno wheel was $200
Cutter kit $55
Switches, wire, capacitors, diodes box etc for the driver $30
Just spent 20$ at glowinc (http://glowinc.com/) for my standlight experiment so we'll add half that.

Its 3 R2s at 500mA ~ 450lm / 295$ so around 1.5lm/$

My old tennis ball halogen (http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2115127&postcount=5) probably cost 60 US$ with similar output. But SLA batteries are a pain in the ass.
So thats around 6 lm/$

I would argue that if you use rechargeables you need to add the cost of your household wiring and some portion of your electricity bill, and enough rechargeables to run all night (~2 dozen, in NZ they are 5$ each too!). :D

The best lumen/dollar is a DIY halogen system.

+1

shiiiiit, i wish we were back in 1985 where I could reconstruct this system for about $25.

+1

Yup. Look at my system (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=368772). I did the pricing in December 2007 so it's fresh. $294 without chargers (I use Maha C777+ which are more much more expensive than most chargers). Using Battery Space chargers, I'd add $30 for dumb chargers, so the total is $325. Total lumen output: 4665 lumen. Price per lumen: $0.06

Compared to a LED ($0.8 per lumen) or HID ($0.63 per lumen), that's a bargain;) To get the same output, I'd need to spend around $3700 and $3000 respectively...and get some really, really wide bars:D

That Road Bike Review page was fun to graph and play with. Their way of comparing lights was simple and reproduceable. The hoot was that for lights of like power the price could vary by over 300% or $270 to $800 for a 500 lumen lamp. Clearly when salespeople talk about super efficient LEDs they are not talking about the super powered 1 and 3 watt models.

My halogen setup cost $37 dollars

$17 dollars for 10 x 20W halogen bulbs,
I then splurged for the Optronics that set me back $20.

For a battery i stole an SLA out of an old UPS. I also use the UPS to charge the battery. Downside is the battery is old and i'm definately not getting the rated 7A... more like 4, but what the hey it was free.

The best lumen/dollar is a DIY halogen system.

Unfortunately doesn't take into account runtime/weight which is equally important.

~1lm/gm here and whats this runtime thing? :D

http://gallery.mtbr.com/data/mtbr/500/medium/ameoba.jpg

http://gallery.mtbr.com/data/mtbr/500/medium/Amoeba_coiled_cable.jpg

Amoeba with Cree P4 WD bin (spot beam) or SSC P4 U bin LED'S (flood beam) - ~400 lumens:
$200 dollars for light head, 7.4V 2400 mAh Li-Ion battery, smart fast charger, charger adapter cable
~3 hour runtime / ~ 3 hour charge time
total weight of light head and battery - 173 grams

Lumens per gram - 2.31
Lumens per dollar - 2.00


Amoeba with Cree R2 WH bin LED'S (spot beam) - ~520 lumens:
$240 dollars for light head, 7.4V 2400 mAh Li-Ion battery, smart fast charger, charger adapter cable
~3 hour runtime / ~ 3 hour charge time
total weight of light head and battery - 173 grams

Lumens per gram - 3.00
Lumens per dollar - 2.17

http://gallery.mtbr.com/data/mtbr/500/medium/ameoba2.jpg

http://gallery.mtbr.com/data/mtbr/500/medium/Amoeba_flavors.jpg

regulated at 800ma. Single mode – on/off
anodized aluminum housing (choice of 3 finishes)
Optical grade Lexan front cover, rubber switch cover, Trail Tech connectors w/coiled cable, and waterproof cable gland
easily mounts with VELCRO®

If you like more information, email me at JButhman@gmail.com

Unfortunately doesn't take into account runtime/weight which is equally important.

Run time and weight are only important if they are. For example, my lights with 3 different battery capacities will run for from 2.3 hours to 3.0 hours. Not a lot but compared to what I've seen for HID systems, it's in the same ball-park. That's not up to LED systems but I don't need more then the 2.3 hours for commuting. If I want to go for longer rides, I can always run just one light at a time for most of the ride and extend my ride time to 7.9 hours...plenty for just about anyone;)

Weightwise, my system is heavy but at around 15 times the output of a Niterider Trinewt for the slightly less money, I can deal with the weight.