ajsellors
A2OC Donor
Hi,
The first thing I did when I bought my A2 was change the headlight bulbs as I do a lot of driving at night on unlit roads.
I have RING Xenon Ultima 120% brighter H7 bulbs in the dipped beam and OSRAM Night Breaker Plus 90% brighter H3 bulbs in the main beam.
At the time, the brightest OSRAM was the 90% whereas RING sold an H7 with a higher number. As higher is meant to be better and the dipped beam is the most important light for the driving I do regularly, I chose the RING bulb for the dipped beam.
More recently OSRAM have introduced the Night Breaker Unlimited 110% brighter bulb, so I decided to perform a comparative test to see which is best.
The test rig consists of a spare drivers side A2 headlight which has been clamped to my workbench. A 12V car battery supplies the power and an ammeter and voltmeter allow me to see how much power the bulbs actually use. To be road legal, the headlight bulb must not exceed 55W of electrical power.
The RING and OSRAM packaging. The OSRAM packaging is much easier to open as the RING bulbs are completely sealed in plastic which must be cut to open.
The bulbs side by side with a standard Phillips 55W headlight bulb for comparison.
To test, I shone the headlight at the inside of the garage door, 365cm away and measured the light level in the bright part of the beam pattern with a light meter.
For comparison, I also compared the light from a HID projector headlight from a Audi A3 8L facelift model.
The light from the OSRAM and RING bulbs was whiter than the standard bulb and noticeably brighter. The light meter test however doesn’t come close to the percentage claimed by the manufacturers, although the RING was 11% brighter than the OSRAM which the 110% vs. 120% figures would suggest. Part of this may be due to a change I observed in the beam pattern. With the standard bulb, the bright area of the beam was unevenly lit with a small bright band whereas with the other two bulbs, the bright area was more uniform and larger. The manufacturers suggest checking and adjusting the beam alignment after fitting the new bulbs to counter act any differences in filament position. The upgrade bulbs in this comparison seem to have improved the A2 headlight’s beam by spreading the bright light more evenly and over a larger area which may account for the lower than expected increase in brightness.
The HID headlight comparison turned out two results which initially surprised me.
Firstly, the beam area is only marginally brighter than the brightest part of the standard bulb beam. The light was noticeably whiter than all of the standard bulbs, but in the bright areas, the light level wasn’t much different. The big difference however is that whereas the standard light concentrates the light into a very small area, the HID projector, spreads the light over a considerably larger space.
The second interesting result is that the power usage of the HID isn’t that much lower than the standard bulb. The HID lamp itself is rated at 35W (standard bulb 55W), but the actual power drain is 24% more. This extra must be the loss in generating the high voltage to supply the lamp from the car’s 12V supply.
This picture shows the comparison between all 4 headlight bulbs. The camera doesn’t quite pick out the uneven brightness in the standard bulb’s beam and the difference in colour between the brighter and standard bulbs looked more pronounced to the eye. What it does show quite evidently is how much more light is output by the HID bulb compared to the others.
In conclusion, the RING 120% really is brighter than the OSRAM 110% by about the difference the number suggest. Uprating the bulbs will provide more light and so better vision at night which is important for safety when driving on unlit roads. The uprated bulbs do burn hotter which makes them both brighter and whiter which will reduce their life. OSRAM claim a lifespan of slightly more than half of a standard bulb for example. My RING dipped beam bulb is however still going strong after 2 1/4 years. I would personally recommend upgraded to anyone who drives on unlit roads although proper HID projectors will always better the incandescent reflector lamp.
Regards
Andrew
The first thing I did when I bought my A2 was change the headlight bulbs as I do a lot of driving at night on unlit roads.
I have RING Xenon Ultima 120% brighter H7 bulbs in the dipped beam and OSRAM Night Breaker Plus 90% brighter H3 bulbs in the main beam.
At the time, the brightest OSRAM was the 90% whereas RING sold an H7 with a higher number. As higher is meant to be better and the dipped beam is the most important light for the driving I do regularly, I chose the RING bulb for the dipped beam.
More recently OSRAM have introduced the Night Breaker Unlimited 110% brighter bulb, so I decided to perform a comparative test to see which is best.
The test rig consists of a spare drivers side A2 headlight which has been clamped to my workbench. A 12V car battery supplies the power and an ammeter and voltmeter allow me to see how much power the bulbs actually use. To be road legal, the headlight bulb must not exceed 55W of electrical power.
The RING and OSRAM packaging. The OSRAM packaging is much easier to open as the RING bulbs are completely sealed in plastic which must be cut to open.
The bulbs side by side with a standard Phillips 55W headlight bulb for comparison.
To test, I shone the headlight at the inside of the garage door, 365cm away and measured the light level in the bright part of the beam pattern with a light meter.
For comparison, I also compared the light from a HID projector headlight from a Audi A3 8L facelift model.
| Bulb | Voltage | Current | Power | Brightness | Relative brightness |
| Standard Philips | 12.2V | 3.90A | 47.58W | 580LUX | 0% (baseline) |
| OSRAM 110% | 12.2V | 3.91A | 47.70W | 903LUX | 55% brighter |
| RING 120% | 12.2V | 3.89A | 47.46W | 933LUX | 61% brighter |
| A3 8L HID | 12.2V | 3.55A | 43.31W | 608LUX | 5% brighter |
The light from the OSRAM and RING bulbs was whiter than the standard bulb and noticeably brighter. The light meter test however doesn’t come close to the percentage claimed by the manufacturers, although the RING was 11% brighter than the OSRAM which the 110% vs. 120% figures would suggest. Part of this may be due to a change I observed in the beam pattern. With the standard bulb, the bright area of the beam was unevenly lit with a small bright band whereas with the other two bulbs, the bright area was more uniform and larger. The manufacturers suggest checking and adjusting the beam alignment after fitting the new bulbs to counter act any differences in filament position. The upgrade bulbs in this comparison seem to have improved the A2 headlight’s beam by spreading the bright light more evenly and over a larger area which may account for the lower than expected increase in brightness.
The HID headlight comparison turned out two results which initially surprised me.
Firstly, the beam area is only marginally brighter than the brightest part of the standard bulb beam. The light was noticeably whiter than all of the standard bulbs, but in the bright areas, the light level wasn’t much different. The big difference however is that whereas the standard light concentrates the light into a very small area, the HID projector, spreads the light over a considerably larger space.
The second interesting result is that the power usage of the HID isn’t that much lower than the standard bulb. The HID lamp itself is rated at 35W (standard bulb 55W), but the actual power drain is 24% more. This extra must be the loss in generating the high voltage to supply the lamp from the car’s 12V supply.
This picture shows the comparison between all 4 headlight bulbs. The camera doesn’t quite pick out the uneven brightness in the standard bulb’s beam and the difference in colour between the brighter and standard bulbs looked more pronounced to the eye. What it does show quite evidently is how much more light is output by the HID bulb compared to the others.
In conclusion, the RING 120% really is brighter than the OSRAM 110% by about the difference the number suggest. Uprating the bulbs will provide more light and so better vision at night which is important for safety when driving on unlit roads. The uprated bulbs do burn hotter which makes them both brighter and whiter which will reduce their life. OSRAM claim a lifespan of slightly more than half of a standard bulb for example. My RING dipped beam bulb is however still going strong after 2 1/4 years. I would personally recommend upgraded to anyone who drives on unlit roads although proper HID projectors will always better the incandescent reflector lamp.
Regards
Andrew
