Osram Night Breaker Unlimited lifespan

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted By: jeff78
Originally Posted By: inquirer
Another good question is if there are any LED bulbs that are road legal, if they are used as a direct replacement in a halogen headlight.


No, there aren't any.


Quote:
On the other hand, if they can't be used legally why do the produce them?


Because there's a lot of money to be made selling them.

Lots of things that aren't legal are highly profitable.


If I had a nickel for every buffoon around my region that's swapped LED's into their halogen designed headlight assemblies and not even bothered to re-aim the beam, well I'd have a lot of nickels. Can spot them in oncoming traffic 1/4 mile away.

 

[SHOZ]

Originally Posted By: inquirer
Originally Posted By: Carmudgeon
If you're looking for performance and not looks, skip the Philips and go straight to a modified 9011 HIR1 bulb, which is rated for ~2500 lm and ~1400h.

Any bulb with a tinted envelope encompassing the filament and marketed using color temperature as a prominent feature is for the birds.


I am looking 100% for performance. I think color temperature could be counted as part of the performance equation. I have read that the best temp for the human eye is 4800K. At extreme values of temperature probably the drop in performance would be easily perceived by the driver, but of course temp is not that important as brightness, when temp values are average.

My car uses HB3 (9005) and HB4 (9006) bulbs. Are the 9011 HIR1 compatible? And are they road legal without any other modification needed?
What I have found is the 5500k is best vision (whitest) when dry but the 3800k is best for wet roads. The bluer the light the harder it is to see when wet. That being said the 4300k is the sweet spot.

 

[NGRhodes]

Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
The brighter the bulb, the shorter the life. Just plain physics ... the added heat, which is inevitable, takes it's toll. A compromise no matter which way you go.


I think you are forgetting you can alter various physical properties of a bulb such as the dimensions, material, tolerances to make brighter bulbs with equal life span, you get bulbs of roughly same brightness with massively varying lifespan due to quality and materials of the same size.