Illegal headlight bulbs

pa990

any idea why these bulbs dont meet the relevant EU standards ?

http://www.powerbulbs.com/eu/product/crystal-vision-h7

Alun

No idea .. the only difference I can see between those and all the other Philips bulbs is the colour temperature. They're actually less bright by quite a margin than the other bulbs, including the X-treme Visions I use, which are legal, so it's not that.

pa990

How are they less bright ?

Genuine question.. I'm looking at replacing my h7's

kirving

I would guess that the reason the manufacturer, in this case Philips, states that they're not road legal is to cover themselves because that specific model has not (or not yet) gone through a certification process which allows it to be used on a road car. I'm not sure what the actual testing would involve though.

Philips will still put their name to it however, and sell it to the general public because they know from internal testing that the bulb would pass the certification process should it be done. A company like Philips wouldn't want to lose customers who have been fined, or cause accidents by blinding other drivers so in reality they'll be grand on your car.

Other companies will just sell the brightest thing that they can make and not care about who you blind or how many NCT's you fail.

CJhaughey

I'd say its the coating which doesn't comply, reg 3.4.2

Special Circumstances

Must be over the threshold from white to blue...
Wikipedia says:
Under ECE regulations, H1 lamps are required to emit white or selective yellow light.[1] U.S. regulations require H1 lamps to emit white light.[2] Under both ECE and U.S. specifications, the allowable range of white light is quite large; some H1 lamps have a slight blue or yellow tint to the glass yet still produce light legally acceptable under the requirement for white light.

Alun

pa990 wrote: »

How are they less bright ?

Genuine question.. I'm looking at replacing my h7's

They're 1140 lumens as opposed to 1500 for the X-treme Visions.

CiniO

pa990 wrote: »

any idea why these bulbs dont meet the relevant EU standards ?

http://www.powerbulbs.com/eu/product/crystal-vision-h7

Too high colour temperature.

OldmanMondeo

These are the US versions, so the standard in the US are different to the EU. OP look for the Philips White Vision, they are the EU standard, are road legal. Sold in twin packs with the W5W bulbs as well. The also provide 60% more light on the road to a standard bulb and give approx 4300K light colour.

The Xtreme Vision mention above is 120% more light on the road. The would give the normal light colour as a standard bulb.

ironclaw

Personally can't fault the Osram Nightbreaker Extreme's. I replaced a set recently and immediately re-ordered for all the cars. Very good bulb.

OldmanMondeo

ironclaw wrote: »

Personally can't fault the Osram Nightbreaker Extreme's. I replaced a set recently and immediately re-ordered for all the cars. Very good bulb.

I have used both and from my expreience they are not as good as Philips, Better light and lasted longer. Also Nightbreaker is not similar to the link attached by the OP.