Thinking About It: Nissan LEAF SV DRL H11 55w Halogen to 3000K CSP LED "Golden Yellow)

I like the warm amber color of the DRL LEDS

OEM factory DRL projection light on our 19 Nissan LEAF SV featured twin H11 55w LL or long-life Halogen bulbs.

I purchased (for $23) "Gold Yellow" CSP LED lights with the same H11 bulb format on Amazon.com to give better rain & fog performance since warmer light penetrates inclement weather in the dark better than cooler colored light, such that 2000-3000K lights has much less glare back scattering than LED & HID lights with 5000-6500K color temperatures lighting which is sadly a common OEM solution on many newer vehicles for aesthetic reasons, no function.

To understand why warm yellow better that daylight for automotive lighting, consider that blue white light bends more than amber warm white light, or that red bends less than blue light in a prism. As such blue colored lighting tends to scatter more in rain & the fine water droplets in fog, which means that daylight colored automotive head lighting works worse in low light conditions during inclement weather. Most automakers tend to use 3500K bright white or 4000K cool white, since those have better performance when you actually get more value out of the lighting, during periods of poor forward visibility.

Dual sized aluminum &copper wafer CSP creates
a gap space in the output of the projected light

Human eye spectral sensitivity peaks around "bright yellow green or neon green" like green laser pointer, or 520-532 nm or nanometers wavelength or light bulbs with 4200K color temperature known as cool white in the bulb & lamp industry. So intelligent automakers use 3500-4500L lighting, and the Halogen H11 55w LL bulbs that Nissan included in the LEAF are bright white (xenon halogen) high quality lamps with 3500K color temperature. I just happen to love the warm golden yellow since it reminds me of sunsets & camp fires with warm positive memories associated :)

H11 CSP LED (3000K) Bulb Seems Well Made

Thankfully these are not hard to change either. Pop the hood & twist open the cup with two wires that goes to the back of the DRL lighting & pull it out, then twist the bulb with. the wire connector on it to unlock the bulb from the socket holder, then carefully remove the bulb & save it, being careful not to touch the glass fused quarts halogen packet since finger oil can cause those to crack when they are really hot during operation. I saved the old halogen bulbs in the LED package box & put the box in the glove box of the LEAF so I have the OEM halogen bulbs as a backup if or when one of the LED's fails.

If you are interested, I posted images of the box specifications! Cheers & thanks for visiting my blog & having a look :)