You’d have seen orange flashing lights pretty often. But do you know when you are allowed to use flashing lights?

You might have a lot of questions running through your mind right now. You might be confused about the difference between Halogen beacons and LEDs. Anyway, you’ll find answers to all your questions below.

Is Orange another term for Amber? 

If you have been searching for orange-colored lighting, you’d have come across another term for this lighting — Amber. It is another name used for orange flashing lights. The term amber is derived from the English language, and it literally means what the term says.

Amber means the yellow and orange colors that you find in lighting. So it’s apparent that the color amber means the official name for the orange or yellow color in lighting. So it simply means you’re planning to purchase an orange lighting lamp.

Flashing Lights in Other Colors

There are many other colors in flashing lights apart from orange lights. But orange color is the most common light. You would have come across other flashing lights such as green or blue.

Many other countries allow red flashing lights as well. However, the Netherlands don’t use the red color for their emergency services.

Flashing Lights — Blue 

Blue lights are the most preferred and common ones after the orange lights. Various emergency services use blue lights, such as police, emergency services, and fire brigade.

When a vehicle uses blue flashing lights while driving, it should have reflective striping, signs, letters, or numbers that the other drivers on the road can recognize. It should be clear to the road users that the vehicle passing by belongs to one of the sectors mentioned.

Flashing Light — Green 

Green lights aren’t common as blue ones. It’s usually used as the additional lights along with other colors. It’s a color that is never used in vehicles that are moving. You’ll see these in stationary vehicles. It’s used to show the leading vehicle.

Just like blue ones, green flashing lights are also for emergency services only. The highest ranking officer owns a vehicle with green lights.

Flashing Light — Red 

In principle, these red flashing lights aren’t used in the Netherlands. Certain countries use these red lights in specific emergency services. But as for Netherland’s rules, it’s not allowed in traffic because it’s believed to be unsafe. You can only see red lights in the vehicle’s rear.

The visibility spreads across all sides when a user installs red flashing lights. It becomes difficult for others to see the vehicle’s direction when it happens. This might create dangerous situations. Hence, using red flashing lights in Netherlands traffic has been prohibited.

Flashing Light — Orange (Amber) 

It’s no doubt that you would have seen orange lights in traffic. In fact, it’s the most common one around. Vehicles on the road or alongside it have orange flashing lights. Orange flashing lights aren’t like other colors on emergency vehicles.

This means you don’t have to follow the “right of way” when you use the orange flashing lights. There’s no requirement to give way for the vehicles with orange lights. Also, we’ll discuss the situations when you can use the orange flashing lights.

Situations When You Can Use Orange Lights

While it’s still uncertain when you can use the orange flashing lights, there are some instances you can consider.

To make things easy for you, we have mentioned the situations below:

• When handling with assistance on the roadside in vehicles equipped with motors.
• When handling road-based work. It could be the actual work on the road. Or it could even be like winter gritting.
• Work such as towing other vehicles.
• When accompanying transport that has received an exemption.
• When handling military columns.
• For custom work.
• When handling vehicles that have limited speed. For example, agricultural vehicles.

When Can You Use These Lights On Trucks

One of the frequently asked questions is when you can flash these lights. So the above list has all the possible situations in that you’re allowed to flash these lights.

Blue and Orange Signaling Lamp Combination

You might see vehicles on the highway with a combination of Blue and Orange signaling lamps. There are priority vehicles that have blue lights along with an orange variant.

The blue light is flashed when the vehicle needs a priority from other road users. The Orange variant is to show hazardous location access. When the vehicle is halted, the combination of Blue and Orange is used.

Is A Licence Required To Display Your Orange Lights

It’s reasonable to wonder whether you need a permit to have orange flashing lights. The good news is you don’t need a permit to install orange flashing lights.

If you’re using the lights in the above situations, you don’t have to worry about the permit. But you shouldn’t forget the certifications related to the orange flashing lights.

Is It Allowed To Use Orange Lights While On Public Roads

While you can’t use all the orange flashing lights on public roads, some exemptions exist. You can use the ones with R65 certification. You might have to bear a fine if you use flashing lights without certifications on public roads.

R65 Certification

You must get the R65 certification to use a light on public roads. Usually, a light that covers all angles can be certified.

It should be visible to the road users from around 20 meters at one and a half meters height.

For example, the second beacon should be fitted when something blocks the orange beacon light.

Is There a Malfunctioning Issue? Does The Lamp Have R10 Certification

You might encounter other issues in your vehicle because of the lamp’s interference.

For example, the radio in your vehicle might be affected. You might encounter issues with this when you switch on the beacon.

Thankfully, it has a certification. There are tests to ensure that the lamps don’t cause this problem. Once it’s tested and proven, the lamp will get the R10 certificate.

The certification proves that the lamp will not cause any interference.

But that’s not all. It also proves that the bulb isn’t prone to interference.

So, to ensure that the orange flashing light isn’t malfunctioning, it’s vital to check its R10 certification.

LED & Halogen Beacons

LED and Halogen are the most common beacons. We’ll discuss the information about these lights below.

Halogen Beacons — Rotating

The halogen lamps have stationary bulbs. The light is directed in different directions through the rotating mirror in this lamp. The electric motor rotates the mirror, so it’s obvious that it doesn’t work independently.

As a halogen beacon has several actions, it easily consumes 70-90 watts. Also, you should remember that the rotating parts might wear out soon. As they move often, you might have to replace them.

LED Beacons

It’s not surprising that LED beacons are dominating the market. This is mainly because there are many benefits of using LED lights.

You can use an LED beacon as a flashing and rotating light. It doesn’t consume much power.

It also lasts longer. You don’t have to replace any parts often because it doesn’t have moving parts that wear out. You’ll find powerful LEDs surrounding a reflector.

It will be integrated into the beacon. There is a high possibility for multiple patterns as electronics handle every LED individually.

Can A Private Person Have Orange Lights

Logically, a private person isn’t allowed to use green or blue lights. Lights that are for emergency services can’t be used for private vehicles.

If private vehicles have similar lights, it’ll be difficult to understand the type of vehicle standing still or approaching.

Are orange flashing lights allowed on private vehicles? Can private individuals use or have these on their vehicles?

It’s a simple answer. As per the law, a passenger car shouldn’t have other flashing lights except for:

• Direction indicators
• Brake lights used for emergency stop signal
• Warning lights

As per article 5.2.64, you can’t carry or have orange lights if you’re a private individual. It’s not allowed for you. You’ll have to bear a fine if you still have or carry orange flashing lights.

LED Beacons From New Vision Auto Light

We have different types and colors of beacons in our product range. We have orange flashing lights along with red, blue, and green lights.

The most in-demand flashing lights are orange colored. However, you can mount these lights in different ways.

How To Assemble

You can install our LED beacons in 4 different ways. You’ll find an option for all situations.

Fixed Installation

The very first method to mount your flashing light is to install it in your vehicle. Usually, it is installed on the vehicle’s roof using three bolts. These bolts are enough to secure the LED beacon to the vehicle.

Flexible DIN Mounting

This is one of the simplest and easiest mounting forms. The beacon is even more solid in this procedure. The LED beacon is fixed to a flexible stand.

This creates flexibility by moving with you. It’s easy to replace any parts with DIN mounting. If you want to remove a light, the DIN base makes it easy to do so and replace it with another light.

Suction Cup/Magnetic Base

The LED beacons that come with a magnetic base are easy to install on the vehicle. The lamp is fixed to the roof by the magnetic.

The best part is that the suction cup enhances its stability. Because of the suction cup, the beacon will be firmly fixed to the vehicle.

Single Bolt Mounting

As the name suggests, it’s securing an LED beacon using just one bolt. The procedure is the same as the fixed assembly. The only difference is that you’ll be using only one bolt here. You can secure the beacon to your vehicle using just one bolt.

Conclusion

So, in summary, you have to use orange flashing lights based on the situation.

Everyone is not allowed to use orange flashing lights, and there are other rules one must know when using these lights.

Talk to us if you have more questions related to beacons.