> A: It's cooled through our large heatsink and ultra quiet Noctua fan. The fan only turns on above 75% brightness. At max power, the heatsink is cool enough to put your hands on it for a couple of seconds.
CENELEC Guide 29, referenced in EU harmonized standards sets burn thresholds:
For brief contact (e.g., 1-3 seconds on adult-accessible parts), temperatures should stay below ~48-55°C depending on material; longer reflexive contact requires even lower limits (e.g., 43°C for extended exposure). A surface hot enough that hands can only tolerate it for "a couple of seconds" implies it's above this (likely 60°C+), risking second-degree burns.
I practice this means this product would not be allowed to be sold in EU. This would have been thoroughly tested to get the CE mark.
> All LED lights sold in Europe must carry the CE mark
Well, at no point do they talk about any kind of certification so my guess is they just didn't care/know/worry about it. So, yes, it's probably not legal to sell this in many places -not just EU-.
LEDs are pretty insane these days - the ones we use have an L90 (time until they hit 90% brightness) of >50,000 hours (17 years if you use it every day 8 hours a day).
Congrats on the first batch shipment! What an accomplishment. As someone who just crossed 10 years as a first time foray into HW, I'd like to tell you it gets easier. It doesn't but keep going anyway! Good luck.
Yep lumens are additive (though your eyes perceive them logarithmically).
I don't know much about car headlights, but chatgpt says high beams are typically 25-45 watts, and assuming a generous 200lm/w that gives you 5000-9000 lm.
Roughly speaking, it's expensive because it's 50 lbs & tons of electrical components (that are much higher quality than $24 headlights).
