wattage consumed at different voltages. H4 bulbs

[wrcsixeight]

I have an adjustable voltage DC power supply which goes as low as 10.88 volts, as high as 15.56 volts, and has almost 100 amps available to seek and maintain the chosen voltage. It has a ten turn potentiometer to dial in voltage to 0.01v precisely. Its main use is as a mack daddy manual battery charger.


On the DC Output I have an RC wattmeter capable of 50 amps continuous, 200 surge, that displays Voltage, Amperage and wattage and a couple other figures not relevant to this test, unless I were wanting to see how much watt or amp hours I consumed performing the test. The wattmeter is accurate from 0.3 to 50 amps. Accurate enough compared to 2 other shunted meters and a clamp on Ammeter, but 'accurate enough' is of course variable. I don't have calibrated flukes.


At 0.5 amps, all agree within 0.12 amps, At 5 amps within 0.18 amps, and at 40 amps they all read within 0.95 amps of each other.


The RC style wattmeter is fed with a short length of 8awg from the power supply. A short length of 8awg goes to a connector( anderson powerpole 45 amp) then 8 inches of 16AWg goto alligator clips attached to the bulb terminals.


The 16AWg and alligator clips are of course unideal, but voltage drop across it should not be extreme, somebody could run the numbers. Kind of old 16awg.... squeezing the alligator clip's jaws harder for more firm contact on the tabs, did not change wattage consumed, or lux output, so an iffy connection at the bulb is not a factor.




I tested the three bulbs currently at my disposal, on my workbench, shielded from my eyes, with my phone a set distance away, easily read, a Lux app running.


The Lux data will likely not make it in this post. It can't really be compared between bulbs, only against each bulb low and high beam against itself as voltage increases. The free lux app is not very sophisticated and my smart phone is ancient, by smart phone standards, Galaxy s4 mini.


A Phillips Xtreme Vision +130 h4 bulb has less than 60 minutes of use on it. This might be a counterfeit bulb.... Still trying to figure that out.


A GE bulb, which came with my Hella Vision plus h6054 5x7"/ 200mm sealed beam replacement housings, less than 45 minutes usage.


A sylvania silverstar H6054 sealed beam with 250 to 300 hours of use on it.












Voltage........ Wattage low beam.......Wattage high beam..........
00.00v..........GE.......XV.......SS...........GE......XV........SS..............
11.00v..........30.4....36.7.....27.3........51.6....54.3......55.8.....
11.50v..........37.2....39.3.....29.2........56.3....59.4.....60.....
12.00v..........39.8.....42.0....31.2........60.0....63.4.....64.3
12.50v..........42.5.....44.6....37.5........64.1....67.7.....68.6
13.00v..........44.9.....47.1....35.3........60.0....71.8.....72.9
13.50v..........47.6.....50.0....37.5........72.1....77.2.....77.3
14.00v..........50.4.....52.8....39.5........76.3....81.1.....82.2
14.50v..........53.2.....55.6....41.7........80.7....85.6.....86.8
15.00v........--.---......60.8....43.9........85.2....90.5.....91.6.
15.56v.......--.---.......--.--....46.5.......--.-......--.-........96.8


This is time consuming....
Interesting that the Low beams, only the XV+130 exceeds 55 watts, at 14.5v, a voltage very few bulbs will actually see in an Automobile.


The Sylvania sealed beam is only 41.7 watts at 14.5v. Does this bulb have the same shield to prevent the filament from shining into the lower portion of the reflector, like the H4 bulbs?


the GE's high beam exceeds 65 watts about 12.65v
The XV+130 exceeds 65 watts @ ~ 12.3v
The SS exceeds 65 watts @ ~ 12.15v


I did not want to take the H4's to 15.56v, and apparently forgot to record GE low beam wattage at 15.0v, but the trend says somewhere right around 15.0v is where it consumes its 55 watt rating.


Quick lux low beam numbers at 11.5 and 14.0v
GE Low beam 209 and 387
XV low beam 153 and 354
SS low beam 138 and 257


Do not compare lux readings between bulbs only against themselves
The XV's lux more than doubles from 11.5 to 14.0v, neither of the other 2 do


Quick High beam Lux @ 11.5 and 14.0


GE 883 and 1424
XV 675 and 980
SS 634 and 962




The GE and XV bulbs were not in a hella housing on my workbench. I did angle and position the phone in front of SS beam so the SS read the same as the XV at 11.0v, but there's too much room for error to compare the Lux of those two to each other


In my subjective opinion:


The SS's h6054 low beam performance pales in comparison to either the GE or XV bulb in the Hella SAE 5x7 housing
The SS's h6054 high beam draws the most wattage at any voltage, but is much less bright than either GE or XV.
I'll claim 50% more light from the hella high beams compared to sylvania sealed beam, and give the edge to the GE H4 bulb in the light cannon department, over the H4 Xv+130


I control my vehicle's system voltage have a 12AWG relayed harness, and my impressions were made with the battery at 14.69v, and ~14.39v reaching the bulb terminal at low beam.


The XV's Lux really increased more dramatically than the other 2 with more voltage, but I'd really prefer a better test method and recording device.


I've got some flosser H4 200/55's en route. I wonder how much its '100' watt filament will actually draw at various voltages.


Time will tell.


Hope you enjoy the data.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Generally speaking, power consumed changes to the power of 1.6 with changes in voltage.

A general formula for the bulb life, filament power, and filament output is:
Multiplier=(ActualVoltage/RatedVoltage)SpecialExponent​

The SpecialExponent for bulb life is -13; for filament output is 3.4; filament power consumption is 1.6.

This is not *exact* as filament metallurgy and fill gas and such all come in to play with varying effects on output and life and power consumed, but it's good enough most purposes and is a quick way to figure out the effects your electrical system may have on lamp performance.

So, for a particular 9006 (HB4) we'd have 1000hrs of life, 55W, and 1000lm at 12.8V. If we run it at 11.9V:

Life
Multiplier=(11.9/12.8)-13​
Multiplier=2.58
New life is 2580hrs.

Power
Multiplier=(11.9/12.8)1.6​
Multiplier=0.89
New power consumption is 49W.

Output
Multiplier=(11.9/12.8)3.4​
Multiplier=0.7805
New output is 780.5lm.

(For output, not only is there a decrease in the luminous flux in lumens, filament luminance (in cd/m2​) also goes down which means greatly reduced "punch" of the beam.)

Where the formula and instrumented tests differ, so long as the instrumented tests were run with calibrated equipment then obviously the test was right and the formula couldn't account for some bulb differences.

 

[wrcsixeight]

Added the Flosser 525543 100/55

So:

GE 50440U 60/55w

PHILLIPS 12342 XV+ 60/55w

Sylvania Silverstar h6054

FLOSSER 525543 100/55







Voltage........ Wattage low beam.............................Wattage High beam..........
00.00v..........GE.......XV.......SS.......FLO..................GE........XV..........SS...........FLO 55/100......
11.00v..........30.4....36.7.....27.3......37.9................51.6.....54.3.......55.8...........64.5..............
11.50v..........37.2....39.3.....29.2......40.5................56.3.....59.4.......60.............69.1...............
12.00v..........39.8.....42.0....31.2......43.2.................60.0....63.4.......64.3..........73.8...............
12.50v..........42.5.....44.6....37.5......45.8................64.1.....67.7.......68.6..........78.8...............
13.00v..........44.9.....47.1....35.3......48.6................60.0.....71.8.......72.9..........83.7...............
13.50v..........47.6.....50.0....37.5......51.5................72.1.....77.2.......77.3..........88.9...............
14.00v..........50.4.....52.8....39.5......54.6................76.3.....81.1.......82.2..........94.1...............
14.50v..........53.2.....55.6....41.7......57.3.................80.7....85.6.......86.8..........99.6...............
15.00v........--.---......60.8....43.9......60.5.................85.2....90.5.......91.6..........105.3.............
15.56v.......--.---.......--.--....46.5.............................--.-......--.-.........96.8



So the Flosser draws more wattage on both high beam and low beam filaments

I have the Phillips passenger side, Flosser drivers and lined up in my long dark parking lot with a wall of bushes on end.

Subjective impressions:

High beam the Flosser seems to have a much stronger hot spot, down and to the left. Phillips more diffuse and blue in comparison on the greenery of the bushes.

Low beam driving under white street lights, the Phillips disappears and I can still see the Flosser hotspot.
Driving under High pressure sodium street lighting the Flosser gets absorbed and the Phillips hotspot stays visible.

I really can't tell which bulb I like better, they both seem equally powerful to my eyes, just different colors.

On high beam, the Flosser has a hotspot down to the left compared to Phillips, and the GE. The GE high beam seems brighter than Phillips, and neither Phillips or GE have such an obvious hotspot as the Flosser. More diffuse.



The Flosser down and to the left high beam hotspot, is similar to Virgil's test of the higher wattage H4 bulbs in whatever housing he used.

Having a Flosser on each side, I wonder if the deer down and to the right would be less visible with the hotspots being down and to the left, compared to the other two bulbs.

 

[wrcsixeight]

When I installed the second flosser in passenger side, I was disappointed that the Low beam focus and output was poorer than the Flosser installed on the driver's side.

The high beam seemed to tag the same spot as the drivers side Flosser, with an intense hotspot.... Directly into the eyes of a would be oncoming driver, with a darker spot off to the right, right where deer would be feeding on the side of the highway.

So,
I returned the Phillips XV+130s, after removing all the blue coating with a sharp single edge razor and a Q tip soaked in 70% IPA as a lubricant, perhaps a blue coating softener.
Am now quite happy with both high and low beam.
I'll report back promptly if my blue coating stripping induce premature failure, but I was careful to not scratch the quartz.
Time will tell.

If the flosser hotspot high beam was not down and so far to the left, the extra ~ 10 watts was noticeable in total light output over the GE's or the XV's.

 

[-Virgil-]

after removing all the blue coating with a sharp single edge razor

Clever, but this makes me cringe because of the danger involved. You are basically scraping at a fragile grenade; headlight bulbs contain extremely high pressure and if one breaks, even at room temperature, it explodes into very sharp bits of glass thrown very forcefully. This is really not something you want to be doing without substantial protective gear: a sturdy full-face shield, leather welding gloves and heavy outerwear, etc.

and a Q tip soaked in 70% IPA as a lubricant

Light bulbs like beer now, too? Are you sure the bulb you were messing with was old enough to drink? ;-)

If the flosser hotspot high beam was not down and so far to the left, the extra ~ 10 watts was noticeable in total light output over the GE's or the XV's.

I understand what you meant, but in truth one doesn't (can't) notice "watts of light output". Watts are a measure of electrical energy (input), not light energy (output), and there is no proportional link between the two.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I knew the bulbs are fragile going into it, I did take precautions.. One should also use lung protection.

The amount of pressure required to strip the blue coating, is not significant. One will need some good reading glasses to see the tiny fine whisp of blue that is removed on the initial pass. The swab turning blue is also confirmation. A single edge razoe blade is slightly flexible, I'd choose this over the kind which go in box cutters, and perhapsd those meant for straight shavers are even more flexible, spreading their load across more of the bulb.

On some other forums, IPA is short for Isopropyl Rubbing alcohol, DNA denatured alcohol, ect.

Subjective, but the Flosser 100/55 high beams, seemed to have noticeably more light output than the GE or XV's, at least in that hotspot. If that high beam hotspot was not aimed so far to the left, I might not have bothered trying to strip the blue coating on the XV+130's.