Night Time Illumination

[gyre]

The newer ones may not, but traditionally, they dimmed when hot.
Not an issue on the playa.
Burnout became a problem with higher power ones too, but adequate heatsinking seems to have solved that.
They produce full efficacy in extreme cold, something most lamps do not do.

Desert use of heat sensitive lights is a particular problem when they are turned on before the daytime heat soak has cooled off.
Even the indestructible holophanes were cooking in the middle east if they came on too early.

You mostly see heat dimming in LEDs in cheaper plastic headlamps and flashlights.

[BBadger]

For LEDs, it depends on the amount of heat, but usually decorative LEDs (LED ropes/strips, etc. but not those ultra-bright panels) aren't using the type that generate that much heat, and if they dim, it's usually because the manufacturing is low-quality to begin with. Headlamps and flashlights are different as they usually comprise LEDs that each use order of watts per LED, and they're attached to star-shaped mounting heatsink plates to fix to heatsinks. That UV LED I bought needed a special heatsink with a heat-pipe in it to remove the heat without active (fan) cooling.

[gyre]

External heat is the issue with low power LEDs, but not an issue with outside lighting at burning man.

Renojeff, you should be aware of side diffracting fibre optics, which can be LED driven.
Or HID is common now.
There is an excellent bit written and posted here somewhere.

[theCryptofishist]

We need a thread on Day Time Illumination.

[gyre]

Manuscripts, people or vehicles?

[Captain Goddammit]

How about a thread on "Unlimited Resources Mutant Vehicle Construction".
There's lots of good info here on that.

[smittydc]

For a medium sized 5-man vehicle, go with batteries and LEDs (strips, bulbs, washes, string lights, etc). There are tons of reasonably priced options out there and you will be plenty bright. Nightime is basically 7pm-5am, so powering 10 hours of lights isn't as tough as it used to be.

Don't bother with a genny unless you need more amps (sound system, projectors, high intensity spot lights).

[trilobyte]

I'm giving this a nudge over to the Transportation board, since that's a better fit for general questions and problem-solving. The year-specific MV board is more for announcing and discussing fully formed projects that are coming to the desert that year.