Eco Headlights measured and compared

[PaleMelanesian]

I bought a pair each of Sylvania EcoBright bulbs and Philips EcoVision, both 9003/HB2 size.

OEM bulbs: 51 (spec 55W)
Philips: 44W
Sylvania: 44W *

*Sylvania's bulbs start out at 48W and slowly drop to 44 after about a minute. The Philips bulbs start and stay at 44. It's possible the Sylvania's would drop even lower with more time but I stopped to not drain my battery.

Combined results (with LED tail & marker lights), car on but not running.

State	OEM power draw	Eco power draw
No lights	38W	38W
Running/marker + taillights	66W	41W
Headlights	168W	129W

That's a 23% improvement.

I am currently running the Sylvania Ecobrights because of the dropping power consumption. They might (probably will?) settle at lower power than the Philips after a minute of warmup.

Brightness and color are the same with all 3 (oem, philips, sylvania) under the scientific test of "stand 50 feet away and look at them".

[PaleMelanesian]

headlights: 14W saved, $13 spent
LED's all around: 25W saved, $110 spent

[AndrzejM]

Thanks for sharing

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Combined results (with LED tail & marker lights), car on but not running.






That's a 23% improvement.

That's a nice improvement. How did you measure the baseline power draw of 38watts?

[PaleMelanesian]

All of this is measured by disconnecting the positive battery cable and inserting an ammeter, then multiply by 12 to get Watts.

Car draws 0.18A = 2W just sitting there, from remote door locks to security to radio memory and other stuff.

[RobertISaar]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

All of this is measured by disconnecting the positive battery cable and inserting an ammeter, then multiply by 12 to get Watts.

not a 100% accurate way of measuring wattage, but close enough if the battery voltage didn't drop too much between the first and last test.

[PaleMelanesian]

I did a test with OEM again at the end for just that reason. Results were within a couple hundredths.

[NeilBlanchard]

If you have 7" diameter round headlights then you can use these:

Truck Lite 27270C LED Headlamp 7" Round

They are just 1.8A at 12.8v for low beams. They also make 5" x 7" rectangular LED headlights: Truck-Lite 27450C LED HeadLamp 5" x7"

[brucepick]

Thanks for testing the headlights. I've seen them available but wasn't sure how much power theywould save.

[RobertISaar]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

If you have 7" diameter round headlights then you can use these:

Truck Lite 27270C LED Headlamp 7" Round

They are just 1.8A at 12.8v for low beams. They also make 5" x 7" rectangular LED headlights: Truck-Lite 27450C LED HeadLamp 5" x7"

..... i don't know if you would ever make that investment back?