Headlight upgrade

[AisinW]

14 hours ago, AJones said:

OSRAM, so a well known legitimate company, are marketing 'street legal' LED lamps, though it looks like they might only be legal in some EU countries, possibly not legal in the UK.

https://www.osram.co.uk/am/night-breaker-led.jsp

Yes, in Germany and Austria, H7 and H4 LED bulbs from Philips and OSRAM are legal but they are as dim as the Halogen, about 1400-600 lumens, just white, and stupid expensive for what they offer. The driver is in the bulb and cause the LED chip too hot and can only handle about 20 watts.  Not comparable to xenon 3800lumens.  V45 is 45 watts, identical with the HIR2 halogen but the driver is separate and the heatsink is huge with liquid filled pipes, like in the CPU and GPU in the laptop.

[Heidfirst]

2 hours ago, Wooster said:

Yes, we know this. But as I said before - "You have to ask how you'd feel if you collided with a push bike being ridden without any lights - because you couldn't see him. Compared to how you'd feel if you avoided the same cyclist because you could see him, as you'd fitted illegal LEDs. Your choice."

I don't think that I would ever be in that position because I drive to the conditions & that includes vision. Even the factory HIR2s in my 2017 Avenisis I could live with albeit definitely not the best so I upgraded to Optiwhites which were imo a noticeable improvement & perfectly adequate. With modern headlight design higher output lights only increase the lighting within a sharply defined area - it does not extend that area. My real complaint with HIR2s is that if the bulb dies you lose both low & high beam so completely dark on one side (personal experience during a journey).

The cyclist obviously would not be blameless.

You are going to love the trials in England of removing streetlights https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/27/lamppost-removal-car-headlights-climate-change-road-safety/

 

[AisinW]

No street lights, better view for car driver but not for cyclist or pedistrian. I know the feeling walking in suburban area at 11 pm in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty scary in case a hog/wild pigs just ramp me. 

Most accident occurs at night because of our limited visibiilty. There are 2 reasons, blinded by other or not enough brightness. I believe that not enough brightness and light reach are the main cause.  That's why Adaptive headlights/matrix LED really help if they really work and do not blind others. The white light also helps our brain awarnes than yellow. 

[Mojo1010]

While the white light 6k temp of led is good for dry condition, it's not much good in the wet/rain. This is my gripe with led or 6k temp with hid. This is where hid will always be my choice with 5k & 4.3k temp for other than dry condition.