Hello,
I should start by saying that I have done quite a bit of research on this topic, and I understand that fitting LED bulbs into halogen housings is a bit of a controversial topic here. So I hope you all do not mind my post.
From what I understand, LED bulbs are usually not a great choice for Halogen housings because of their differing light optics, that do not match that of an incandescent bulb. Several aftermarket LED "replacements" have been on the market for years now, making misleading claims about light output, while performing worse than stock halogen bulbs in real-life scenarios. Because of the advice provided on this forum, I have held off on purchasing any of these aftermarket bulbs.
What caught my eye, recently, is that some well-known manufacturers like Philips and Osram are entering the market. For instance, there is the Philips Xtreme-Ultinon and Osram LEDriving products which are marked to be direct, plug-and-play replacements for halogen bulbs. I am considering buying the following product for my 2017 Honda Civic: LEDriving HL H11 Gen2.
To give you some background, I happen to live in a big city in Canada and do 95% of my driving on roads that are illuminated by streetlights (here we have them on highways too). I am motivated mainly by cosmetics (I hate that the halogens make my almost-new car look so antiquated). Therefore, the actual output of the lights do not concern me so long as they perform at least as well as the OEM halogen bulbs. Beyond that, the main considerations are 1) Glare and 2) Bulb life. For the former, it appears that regardless of the light source, my projector housing will always maintain the cutoff so as not to blind oncoming traffic. Is this correct? For the latter, Osram lists the bulb life as 2500 hrs for B3 and 5000 hrs for TC, which seems unbelievably good to me. Do you think this bulb can be reasonably expected to last that long?
Lastly, I compared the Philips/Osram bulbs to one of the "bad" ones on the market (whose owner happened to do an AMA here, was promptly roasted and had his thread deleted), and am quite curious about the results.
Philips XtremeUltinon Gen 2: 22.0W -> 1350 Lumens
Osram LEDriving HL Gen 1: 18.6W -> 1390 Lumens
Osram LEDriving HL Gen 2: 15.4W -> 1215 Lumens
DD Model Name Redacted: 20.6W -> 1630 Lumens
There are some observations to make here:
1) The "bad" bulb produces more lumens than the Philips/Osram bulbs
2) The Osram bulb draws less power and produces less lumens than the others
3) The second generation of the Osram bulb actually produces LESS Lumens than the first generation
Why is it that the "good" bulbs produce less lumens? And why would Osram decide to make their second generation bulbs less powerful than the first? Given that the "bad" bulbs actually produce more lumens, could they actually be the better choice?
Thank you, I will be awaiting your advice.
I should start by saying that I have done quite a bit of research on this topic, and I understand that fitting LED bulbs into halogen housings is a bit of a controversial topic here. So I hope you all do not mind my post.
From what I understand, LED bulbs are usually not a great choice for Halogen housings because of their differing light optics, that do not match that of an incandescent bulb. Several aftermarket LED "replacements" have been on the market for years now, making misleading claims about light output, while performing worse than stock halogen bulbs in real-life scenarios. Because of the advice provided on this forum, I have held off on purchasing any of these aftermarket bulbs.
What caught my eye, recently, is that some well-known manufacturers like Philips and Osram are entering the market. For instance, there is the Philips Xtreme-Ultinon and Osram LEDriving products which are marked to be direct, plug-and-play replacements for halogen bulbs. I am considering buying the following product for my 2017 Honda Civic: LEDriving HL H11 Gen2.
To give you some background, I happen to live in a big city in Canada and do 95% of my driving on roads that are illuminated by streetlights (here we have them on highways too). I am motivated mainly by cosmetics (I hate that the halogens make my almost-new car look so antiquated). Therefore, the actual output of the lights do not concern me so long as they perform at least as well as the OEM halogen bulbs. Beyond that, the main considerations are 1) Glare and 2) Bulb life. For the former, it appears that regardless of the light source, my projector housing will always maintain the cutoff so as not to blind oncoming traffic. Is this correct? For the latter, Osram lists the bulb life as 2500 hrs for B3 and 5000 hrs for TC, which seems unbelievably good to me. Do you think this bulb can be reasonably expected to last that long?
Lastly, I compared the Philips/Osram bulbs to one of the "bad" ones on the market (whose owner happened to do an AMA here, was promptly roasted and had his thread deleted), and am quite curious about the results.
Philips XtremeUltinon Gen 2: 22.0W -> 1350 Lumens
Osram LEDriving HL Gen 1: 18.6W -> 1390 Lumens
Osram LEDriving HL Gen 2: 15.4W -> 1215 Lumens
DD Model Name Redacted: 20.6W -> 1630 Lumens
There are some observations to make here:
1) The "bad" bulb produces more lumens than the Philips/Osram bulbs
2) The Osram bulb draws less power and produces less lumens than the others
3) The second generation of the Osram bulb actually produces LESS Lumens than the first generation
Why is it that the "good" bulbs produce less lumens? And why would Osram decide to make their second generation bulbs less powerful than the first? Given that the "bad" bulbs actually produce more lumens, could they actually be the better choice?
Thank you, I will be awaiting your advice.