Both technically and marketwise, the halogen bulb is singing on its last tone. The only reason some of the automotive marked is still using halogen on new vehicles is price on HID. And that price on HID systems are eventually going down towards the US$300 mark. In the mean time, aftermaked companies tries to convince consumers that you can achieve HID brightness with a bulb they sell. Some of them are a little brighter, but many car enthusiasts find that it is not worth the extra price and effort. All of them have shorter life, some of them as low as 10% compared to a stock bulb from the dealer. Reports shows that they can explode and scratch up your reflector!
For the 55W marked segment, sorted in order of brightness:
+50%: Philips Vision Plus (achieves its extra performance
by increased luminance, not lumens. See this article: http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/press/automotive/resultsVision.shtml)
+30%: Philips Premium, Osram Silverstar (European marked only - see note below)
+20%: Osram/Sylvania Xtra Vision, Osram/Sylvania Silverstar (North american marked only - see note below)
+0%: Philips Bluevison, Osram/Sylvania Cool Blue, Osram/Sylvania Halogen Plus, and OEM bulbs like GE.
-10%: PIAA Superwite
Silverstar: Do not confuse the European (clear glass) Silverstar with
the North american (slightly blue tinted) Silverstar. The blue tint steals light!
Bosch
Plus 50/60 was released in Europe in Sept 2002. The bulb does not have any
blue tint, claims to not have any reduction in life, and give up to 20 meters longer
view. It has been seem in H4.
PIAA "Xtreme White" was released ~Dec 2001. No independant tests have been conducted so far,
but several positive indications has it that this can end up in the +20-30%.
Note that many cars sold after year 2000 already have premium bulbs installed and
therefore buying any of the above bulbs might not give any or only minor improvement.
Among H7 applications, there should be hard to find non-premium bulbs.
If your car is set up for higher wattage bulbs, Philips Rally bulbs will give more
lumens than most asian overwatts. Be aware that lifetime of a Philips Rally bulb is ~100hours
- so keep some spares in the glove compartment.
Philips bulbs are availble from http://www.powerbulbs.com or www.autolamps-online.com
Narva bulbs are also top notch. Narva is a daughter company of Philips with one intention:
compete with top notch products on the aftermarked. Philips themself are OEM oriented.
What happends if I insert a brighter halogen bulb into an older headlamp?
Let's say you wanted to buy the American Silverstar that has 20% advertised gain.
Fact is that the 20% increase can only be achieved if headlamp is new. As an example,
let us say that headlamp is 6 years old with plastic front glass. It has 100 000 miles
(or 160 000km) so it will probably have high general pitting of front glass.
That will lower the actual output on the road with maybe 40%. Then the 20% advertised
increase will be reduced by 40%, and you end up with 12% increase. That's when
you really wonder if it is worth putting in any
new bulb at all... A difference by 12% is hardly noticable.
Is bulbs ment for the Euro marked legal in US?
Legally, if they don't have the DOT label, they are not legal.
However, in real life noone will ever know. They do not emit that much extra light that you
will separate yourself enough from other drivers, unless you choose one
of the blue coated ones. Most likely you will wear out several sets of
the "little brighter" bulbs before any legal authority will notice.
Will Euro filament bulbs give the same increase as in E-code headlights?
No, in general, an E-code headlamp will show more increase in light power
just beacuse they will match up as a pair.
Whats the deal with HIR bulbs?
They were invented by General Electric a few
years ago. An HIR bulb differs from a standard Halogen bulb by
the fact that they have a reflective infra red coating with
primary purpose of reflecting heat back to the filament.
They are being markeded under these names:
9011 HIR1, high beam, 2500lm bright at 13,2 (+/-15%) Volts
9012 HIR2, low beam, 1875lm bright at 13,2 (+/-15%) Volts
For physical dimansions, goto: http://152.119.239.10/docimages/pdf37/58377_web.pdf
For performance data, see: http://www.gelighting.com/na/downloads/hir1techsheet1.pdf
So far its used on OEM applications only:
Dodge Vipers high beams and Toyota Camry (unofficial).
Dont excpect them to show up at Pep Boys or Canadian Tire anytime soon.
Go to a Viper dealer, John Deere tractor dealer, or the Toyota dealer, or any other
authorized GE dealer that carries automotive line bulbs.
Price on each bulb is probably around what an HID bulb goes for, USD 100-200.
On the aftermarked, an HIR bulb has showd up in the 9005 and 9006 base version,
which is different from 9011 and 9012 base standard. It is
markedet under the "Polarg" brand name. Check out
SPW Industries for details.
The question is if Polarg is using the
GE glasspack and selling them under their own name, or if its their in house
brand. Generally, Polarg products have avarage quality, so our speculations
goes towards the latter. The first quarter of 2003, the japanese company Vestec also
started selling a product that may also very well go into the HIR category: "HID-R Day Light 9006"
IF YOU WANT THE REAL HIR bulbs get the original GE HIR bulbs and re-base them with correct focal position to work in your fixtures on your car.
Yellow fog light bulbs
What are the lumens of all the halogen and HID bulbs?
How does the Catz Zeta light enhancer work?
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003
Yellow bulbs was mandatory in headlamps in France for many years. They supposedly creates
bigger contrasts in less visibilty. Today its only found in fogligths.
Automotive bulbs with actual yellow glass envelopes aren't made any more. Cadmium was used in their manufacture, and is now outlawed, having been identified as a carcinogen. Today's coated bulbs are a poor substitute for the original. The best bet would probably be to look on the on-line auctions, since somebody may still have a stash of these old bulbs. Expect to pay big bux.
Here is a list of yellow bulbs in production today:
Narva Gold (Yellow) Suvlights
Hella Yellow Star (Less Yellow) Susquehanna
PIAA Ion Crystal (Yellow) (use search engine: "PIAA H3 Ion Crystal" will give many results)
PIAA Ion Yellow 2300K (Yellow) HiTech Import Lighting
Philips WeatherVision (Less Yellow) Autolamps
According to the Bosch/SAE Automotive Handbook (4th Ed.) the following is a list of bulbs, wattage and output at 12V:
Bulb_typ, Wattage(W), Luminous_flux(lm):
H1 55 1550
H2 55 1800
H3 55 1450
H4* 60/55 1650/1000
H7** 55 1500
H8*** 35 700
H9*** 65 1870
H11*** 55 1200
HB1(=9004) 65/45 1200/700
HB4(=9006) 55 1100
HB3(=9005) 60 1900
HB5*(=9007) 65/55 1350/1000
HID
D1S ~35 3200
D2S ~35 3200
D2R ~35 2800
* High/Low beam
** at 13.2 V
*** at 12.8 V
It contains a DC-DC converter (which are used alot in many industry applications)
that will give higher voltage output. Output voltage to bulb has been
measured to be as high as 16-17V. There will be a slight increase in
amperage draw to be able to create the additional volts and to cover heat
losses in the units. It does give some increase in output, and is
harmless to factory wiring headlamp curcuit. But paying more than $100 for Catz
Zeta, well, that is probably not worth it. In most cars, a relay system
for $35 are more valueable.
Bulb life will suffer, maybe as low as 200 hours, all depending on bulb quality and not to mention remaining life.
Funny story is that, at least in an H4 application, a Philips Vision Plus bulb (sold by autolamps-online.com and
powerbulbs.com) without use of Zeta, has the same intensity at 12V compared to a Catz Zeta system in
combination with a stock Sylvania bulb.
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