I have been in the process of upgrading my headlights. Boy, did they need
it!
I had some old original Lucas sealed beams, some new (but at least 12 years
old) Sylvania tungsten (not halogen) sealed beam lights, and my new H4 with
55/60 bulbs. I tested them on my bench power supply which I am in the
process of building myself, so the current measurements are not extremely
well calibrated, but definitely comparable to each other.
Tested at a regulated 12V, because that is where most bulbs have their
wattage specified by the manufacturer
Lucas:
Low: 3.1 Amps (37 watts)
High: 3.89 Amps (46.7 watts)
Sylvania:
Low: 3.94 A (47.3W)
High: 4.65 A, (55.8W)
H4:
Low: 4.73 A (56.8W)
High: 5.23 A (62.8W)
It would appear that my old Lucas lights were in NO danger of melting my
wiring or switches! Even the plain old Sylvania sealed beams would have
been a noticeable improvement. But the H4's with relays ought to be
wonderful.
BTW, the SLR-576 driving lights only draw 3.62A (43.4W). Probably the good
H4 lights will be more effective than BOTH my old Lucas lights PLUS the
SLR-576 lights!
One of the reasons I did this test, other than interesting results, was that
I needed to determine whether the original plugs needed to be re-indexed to
fit the H4 bulbs. Many years ago I put Cibie Z-beams with H4's on my 1982
Honda Accord, and I needed to use an adapter plug to get it to work
properly. I had thought I would need to move wires around, but the H4
terminals are the same as the old sealed beam terminals
-Tony
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