Combining LED bulbs for brightness?

If you put 2 LED bulbs together in an overhead dome light fixture, will the light be twice as bright?

 

I've tried this on my boat.. It's brighter for that specific area, but it's not twice as bright.

For my application, I was looking for more light wash and ended up removing the old fixtures and went with/added 2" round fixtures with immtra bulbs and it doesn't look gauky.

 

There are lots of newer LED products on the market.

Many of them use specialised wireing to multiple bulbs.

Some are terrific while others burn out quickly.

A good Google search should turn up the better reputation units.

$30 - $40 seems to be their price range.

Of the many benefits is how voltage tolerant they are. Dimming becomes a non-issue.

 

Of course you get twice the brightness.
LED bulbs employ a large number of LED elements to obtain the desired brightness because the size of a single one is too small.

 

They make LED bulbs in many different power ratings, just get the appropriate power LED for you purposes and if you still dont have enough, then look at multiple LEDs... theyre commonly available upto 10w each LED that i know of, and these are extremely bright - 4 of these together is like a 35w HID spotlight or about 3500 lumens - which is like looking at the sun - well not quite but you get the idea... anything above 1w per LED is a very bright LED which can be used in groups of 2 or more for outside deck/work lights etc and almost too bright to use inside... a single 1w LED is about right for inside downlights.

the problem is with the lensing of multiple LEDs... it wont be twice as bright unless the lens is effectively designed for the multiple LEDs or each LED has its own lens... thus its better to buy units with the lensing already done...

 

Well said

 

Just look how Toyota do it.

 

I was thinking of just soldering some leads onto the bulb terminals and attaching it somehow next the existing socket of the dome light in a bid to get some more light output from them.
I took out some 18 watt incandescent 12 volt bulbs and of course the new led 1142 style bulbs are dimmer and bluer. With the new LED bulbs, it is barely tolerable at night, casts a grey blue light. You can see but I was hoping for better results.

These LED are made of 36 or more little clear LED (not the SMD type) all in a circle and stacked in about 4 or5 layers. So on the end, a bunch point forward and all the rest point outwards in a circle as part of the stacked layers.

I got a pack of 10 for about $5 each. They look ok in the anchor lights which is why I got them.
Idea being I can leave them on all night anchoring and not run down the battery. Boat has a forward light on the bow rail and all round anchor light up high.
Though I would try them in inside too.

 

If you want good light inside - a good measure is being able to read a book without straining your eyes from a bulb in the ceiling- then you need the powerful and more expensive LEDs, not the cheap ones which are only good for ambient lighting. The difference in light is tremendous and so is the difference in price...

Nearly all lighting regardless of use such as marine, domestic, commercial, mining, etc, are all moving to LEDs these days for the longer life and lower power consumption. I work in an underground lead/zinc mine, and nearly all the lights on our heavy equipment are now LED, our head lamps are LED, just about everything etc... The main reason people are not changing over yet, is because the very bright LEDs are still alot more expensive per lumen, for the initial purchase.

 

I am going to install some wall lights on swing arms that I got cheap $5 a piece and look nice. They will have those spiral fluorescent 60 watt bulbs that supposedly use 13 watts? Anyway 2 of those on each side of the main cabin.
They are for 3 way bulbs if you wished. I have an inverter on the boat wired into all the outlets.
Then I might still double up the LED's in those 2 dome lights.

not a great picture. I have 2 of these. They were made to hold clip on bulb shades. I bought some frosted thick glass and hot glued them into the brass.
I carved some mahogany bases.

These are real brass non magnetic lights. I have seen some brass plated steel fixtures..



We have a Home Depot store that sells bright 120 volt AC LED bulbs for about $29 each and claim to last 20 years. They are really bright and I noticed the bulbs get real hot. The fluorescent bulbs run cooler. I was surprised how hot the LED get.

 

You need to put some newspaper on the top of that lovely walnut table before you scratch it. I guess you live alone.

 

The finish on that table has held up very well. I picked that up from a thrift shop as part of a dining room set. I liked the table much better than the other pieces.
Chairs were cane backed, the cat destroyed one chair.

 

It wont appear twice as bright -- but certainly it will be.

 

thanks for the lesson in semantics...