Stop in for a cup of coffee
too late!
But I'll spare you the stories of headlights going out on dark Interstate highways. LOL. That was in my '75 4 door Valiant with 6014 bulbs. No melting on that one, just tripped the circuit breaker. I've got more stories, but you get the idea.
A relay system is a must for night driving with any of these higher draw bulbs.
You can make your own or buy a kit from Stern or a premade setup from Rob Yule (screen name crackedback).
Bulbs.
The wattages are 'nominal'. Kindof like US standard pipe sizing. Maybe not that bad. More like lumber sizes. LOL
US and ECE rate the bulbs at different voltages. I don't remember the details. Stern and 'Virgil' have good info about this stuff posted in the web.
Here's some good posts about H4 bulb output.
Bottom line is we don't need a super high draw bulb to get good lighting. :)
Interesting headlight bulb test results
What H4 instead of Osram 64205?
At the risk of information overload, having the least amount of resistance between the alternator and the headlights is also helpful in producing brighter lights.
From Daniel Stern's website:
Quote:
Headlamp bulb light output is severely compromised with decreased voltage. The drop in light output is not linear, it is exponential with the power 3.4. For example, let's consider a 9006 low beam bulb rated 1000 lumens at 12.8 Volts and plug in different voltages:
10.5V : 510 lumens
11.0V : 597 lumens
11.5V : 695 lumens
12.0V : 803 lumens
12.5V : 923 lumens
12.8V : 1000 lumens ←Rated output voltage
13.0V : 1054 lumens
13.5V : 1198 lumens
14.0V : 1356 lumens ←Rated life voltage
14.5V : 1528 lumens
Link to source page at Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy
Don't make me pull out my photos of melted headlight and headlight switch connectors.
too late!
But I'll spare you the stories of headlights going out on dark Interstate highways. LOL. That was in my '75 4 door Valiant with 6014 bulbs. No melting on that one, just tripped the circuit breaker. I've got more stories, but you get the idea.
A relay system is a must for night driving with any of these higher draw bulbs.
You can make your own or buy a kit from Stern or a premade setup from Rob Yule (screen name crackedback).
Bulbs.
The wattages are 'nominal'. Kindof like US standard pipe sizing. Maybe not that bad. More like lumber sizes. LOL
US and ECE rate the bulbs at different voltages. I don't remember the details. Stern and 'Virgil' have good info about this stuff posted in the web.
Here's some good posts about H4 bulb output.
Bottom line is we don't need a super high draw bulb to get good lighting. :)
Interesting headlight bulb test results
What H4 instead of Osram 64205?
At the risk of information overload, having the least amount of resistance between the alternator and the headlights is also helpful in producing brighter lights.
From Daniel Stern's website:
Quote:
Headlamp bulb light output is severely compromised with decreased voltage. The drop in light output is not linear, it is exponential with the power 3.4. For example, let's consider a 9006 low beam bulb rated 1000 lumens at 12.8 Volts and plug in different voltages:
10.5V : 510 lumens
11.0V : 597 lumens
11.5V : 695 lumens
12.0V : 803 lumens
12.5V : 923 lumens
12.8V : 1000 lumens ←Rated output voltage
13.0V : 1054 lumens
13.5V : 1198 lumens
14.0V : 1356 lumens ←Rated life voltage
14.5V : 1528 lumens
Link to source page at Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy
