What are the interior lights?

Most vehicles have interior lights that are also called dome lights or courtesy lights. These can be located on the ceiling of the vehicle and illuminate when people enter or exit the car. The lighting normally stays lit until the vehicle is turned on so the passengers can safely fasten their seat belts.

Nowhere is the lighting more varied than in the interior of your vehicle. There are dome and courtesy lights to guide your way inside, glove box and map lights to help you read and find items, illuminated switches and dials to ease accessory operation in darkness, dash lights to illuminate the instrument panel, and the indicators and warning lights on the gauge panel that alert and advise you of the status of your vehicle’s various systems.

A lot of new cars are showing up with LED interior lights instead of incandescent bulbs. Should you upgrade your existing vehicles’ interior lighting?

LED interior lights

Retrofitting certain components is a great way to bring an older vehicle into the modern age. And the fewer things you envy in newer vehicles, the less likely you are to give in to that envy and start committing to a new round of car payments. So spiffing up what you already have makes economic sense beyond the upgrade itself.

LEDS VS. INCANDESCENT BULBS

The biggest advantage of LED interior lights is a long life. Some studies show LEDs last as much as 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs. It’s a myth that they don’t dim over time as incandescent bulbs do, but that happens a lot further down the road — we’re measuring that in decades.

Since we’re talking about the long term here, this is a good time to note that, yes, LEDs cost more than incandescent bulbs do. But remember — they last up to 25 times longer. Especially if you plan on keeping your car for a long time, LEDs are less expensive in the long run.

Compared to other types of bulbs, LEDs are efficient. As much as 90% of the energy an incandescent bulb uses is wasted as heat. The vast majority of the energy fed into an LED produces just one thing — light. That’s because, in an LED, electrons flow to create photons and very little heat is generated by photons.

And LEDs are configurable. Don’t like that bright, bluish light? The very nature of LEDs makes it possible to change the type of light they emit. So you can buy LEDs that will reproduce the warmer light you’re used to from incandescent bulbs, if that’s what you want — or a virtually limitless range of colors and intensities (which can be great for accent and ambient lighting in your car).

A MODERN TOUCH

If it sounds like the facts stack up in favor of LEDs, it helps to remember that the incandescent bulb is a 140-year-old technology. It took a while to top it, but LEDs have. Changing out your old incandescent interior light bulb for an LED one will go a long way to not only making things brighter on the inside, but also giving your old car a modern feel.

Check out all the electrical system products available on SuncentAuto Online. And if you want to change your interior’s ambiance, we have a range of colors to choose from.