Engineering:Decorative vehicle lighting
Decorative vehicle lighting is lighting which is intended entirely as a decorative or ornamental addition to a vehicle, rather than lighting which is required for safety (i.e. automotive lighting, bicycle lighting, emergency vehicle lighting). Blue lights are often prohibited while in motion so that they will not intentionally or unintentionally imitate a police car.
Recreational vehicles
Recreational vehicles were perhaps the first vehicles to display decorative lighting. While stationary and hooked to mains electricity at a campground, RVs often display festive lighting. This was often strings tiki or other Hawaiian-style decorations, or plastic lanterns, lit from the inside by screw-in Christmas lights. Various miniature lights in non-holiday styles (or patriotic themes for U.S. Independence Day in the summer) are made, and are often now used on patios in the same way. Boats can also be decorated in this way, and some "parades" are actually boats on the water, lit with strings of lights.
Cars
Custom cars sometimes have indirect lighting underneath, glowing a color like green or purple which could not be confused with that of an emergency or other vehicle's normal lighting. These can be provided by strips of tubes of cold-cathode fluorescent lighting, or LEDs.
Hubcaps are made which have three strips of multicolor LEDs along the radius, and rotating with the speed of the car can create full-color motion graphics due to persistence of vision of the human eye.
Automobiles can also be decorated with Christmas lights at Christmastime, and powered through an inverter. This can be as simple as a wreath on the front grille, as would be put on the front door of a home. Very ornately lit and decorated cars can be considered a form of art car, or Christmas light sculpture.
Decorative lighting can also be used on the inside of a vehicle. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have become very popular for this purpose because of their low power draw. 12 Volt varieties are especially useful for this application.
Party buses and limos also have decorative lighting too.
Motorcycles
Motorcycle LED lighting is a type of accent lighting that motorcycle riders choose to enhance the appearance or look of a motorcycle. Motorcycle LED lighting is usually made up of LED pods or strips, or a combination of both.
Riders also choose to do this type of enhancement to improve the motorcycle's visibility to other drivers.
Bicycles
Bicycles are limited to battery power, or that which can be supplied by a small generator.
See also
References
 |
