Sylvania EcoBright headlight bulbs?

[cfg83]

Hello -

Before I logged in today I noticed this ad for Sylvania "EcoBright" headlight bulbs :

OSRAM SYLVANIA - EcoBright?

Save Energy – from 9 to 21% wattage savings.

Now, I can't find hard specs on the EcoBright, so I compared it to the Sylvania "SilverStar" bulb :

Sylvania-SilverStar

SilverStar High Performance Halogen Lumens    Watts Color Temp 
9006 SilverStar                     1000 Max. 60    4000K

From the above, each bulb would use 60 Watts / 12 Volts = 5 Amps.

Soooooo, two normal bulbs would eat 10 Amps, and two EcoBrights would eat 8-9 Amps. I guess that's not much ... but it all adds up (right?!?!?).

I was thinking that this in addition to an LED refresh of the running lights would be a good XMas present for my car.

CarloSW2

[tjts1]

You can get a HID kit for $40 shipped these days and they only use 35w. It seems like a better deal to me.

[old_]

Originally Posted by tjts1

You can get a HID kit for $40 shipped these days and they only use 35w. It seems like a better deal to me.

Please do not install HID's into housings that are not made for them. Light output is usually worse and you be blinding oncoming traffic because the light beam is not controlled. The beam just scatters everywhere. Please do not endanger other drivers and possibly yourself just to save what probably amounts to pocket change over the life of the car.

Now if you really want HID's proper projectors can usually be retrofitted into your stock housings, the price is significantly more than $40 though.

[dwtaylorpdx]

+1 Only install HID in the right housings. Its obnoxious....

Dave

[Weather Spotter]

I would go with the HIDs, I did in my car and have liked the brighter light. as for blinding other drivers, I have watched as others drive my car, not an issue but I did leave the reflector cap in so that there is no direct light.

it will depend on your car where or not it blinds others but for $50 I would check it out. if they do blind others you could go with projectors but they will run you $200+.

[cfg83]

Weather Spotter -

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

I would go with the HIDs, I did in my car and have liked the brighter light. as for blinding other drivers, I have watched as others drive my car, not an issue but I did leave the reflector cap in so that there is no direct light.

it will depend on your car where or not it blinds others but for $50 I would check it out. if they do blind others you could go with projectors but they will run you $200+.

Thanks. I will do more research. There are aftermarket HID headlight projector housing kits for my car, but I can't tell if they are for HID :

1996-1999 SATURN S-SERIES/SL/SW1 PROJECTOR HEAD LIGHTS:eBay Motors (item 150392398446 end time Dec-26-09 10:29:43 PST)


If they are HID-compatible, then combine that with low 35w HIDs and I guess it's a win-win.

Do the HID folks offer "normal light brightness" versions that use even less juice? They could market them as EcoHIDBright or EcoBrightHID or HECoBrights.

I am not interested in "brighter then normal" lights. From what I can tell, the lowest "color temp" for HID is 6000K, whereas the EcoBrights are rated at 4000K.

Is the color temp of HIDs related to watts? If it was a linear relationship, that implies they could get the wattage down to 4000/6000 => 21/35 => 21 watts => 21 watts / 12 volts = 2 Amps per bulb.

PS - I am getting my HID info from this ebay ad.

CarloSW2

[Weather Spotter]

light output is measured in lumans, wattage in to light out is not linear. also color temp has an effect of brightness. if I remember right 48xx K is the brighest. 6000k is about 90%. 8000k is about 70% 10000k is about 55%.

I went with 6000K drop in replacement bulbs from Vvme (I got a deal on some through my Matrix fourm for $50 shipped). They are cheaper than your Ebay site.

[cfg83]

Weather Spotter -

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

light output is measured in lumans, wattage in to light out is not linear. also color temp has an effect of brightness. if I remember right 48xx K is the brighest. 6000k is about 90%. 8000k is about 70% 10000k is about 55%.

I went with 6000K drop in replacement bulbs from Vvme (I got a deal on some through my Matrix fourm for $50 shipped). They are cheaper than your Ebay site.

Thanks. Yeah, your price beats ebay. Do you mean to say that 10000K is not as bright as 6000K? I didn't know that. I gotta do more research ... googling ... I guess > 6000K is "bluer".

CarloSW2

[Weather Spotter]

the luman output of the 10,000K bulbs is lower than the 6000K.

[brucepick]

Degrees K is a way to measure color "temperature".
Lower numbers are "warmer", more yellow. Higher numbers are closer to neutral white, and look blue in comparison to the regular bulbs that are around 48000K. It's all relative.

Lumens - as mentioned earlier - is a measure of light output. I'm trying hard to remember - I think it's measured at the surface the light arrives at. So a plain bulb with no reflector will deliver fewer Lumens to a location than the same bulb equipped with a well designed reflector.

There's another topic where higher color "temperatures" supposedly help you see better, assuming equal Watts or Lumens.