The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Lol well damnit.... I give up!

 

I'm glad the LED bulbs have similar looking light output to incandescent bulbs. I am not a fan of the CFL bulbs at all.

 

Completely agree. Check out GE’s new HD relax 360 degree bulb, the 360 bulb looks nearly identical to an incandescent. The non-360 bulb has the plastic base. These are awesome and when on (or off) appear identical to a traditional 60w bulb.

https://m.lowes.com/pd/GE-Relax-8-P...e-A19-LED-Light-Fixture-Light-Bulb/1000444903

 

Not to wander too far off into house lights but what color temp and CRI are you thinking is best for 'normal' home areas? Or does it vary by location? I spent a considerable sum for LED replacements that had enough lumens to replace the 75 watt halogens in our kitchen, and also were not 5000K or something really nutty like that. I found 3500K but the CRI numbers were less clear to me so I picked one that produced a fuller color spectrum.

 

IMO the house should really range from 2700k-3000k depending on the purpose of the area. 2700k is supposed to be in areas for relaxing and greeting, like entry areas, living room, dining room, bedrooms. 3000k is recommended for areas more task oriented like the kitchen. Some manufactures recommend 5000k for the laundry room, a study or garage but I prefer 3000k in these locations. Daylight color temperature artificially cause people to stay awake longer and mess with your sleep cycle if used in the evening. Not something I want in my house.

When you say CRI is less clear? CRI (Color Rendering Index) is how accurately colors are shown in that light. LEDs typically do poorly with R9 values (red) so color appears washed out, almost pastel for red tones. 100 CRI is perfect color representation, which is what halogen/incondesent put out. Average consumer LEDs are in the low 80s which is awful, the old CFLs were 85 (still awful and had other significant light spectrum quality issues). HD LED lights, or high CRI, range from 90-95 which is pretty good.

The relatively standard example of red wash out is the Apple test:


While seeing how red the Apple is is great. I want to see how red the center of my medium rare steak is accurately.

In short fuller spectrum higher CRI is better.

In the kitchen, often specialty bulbs make quality lighting a challenge. I’ve tried several. Low CRI bulbs may have the power but wash out color, which is quite noticeable on wood with red tones like some cabinets and floors, and higher CRI often lack the output power making the room dimmer. So while it may be advertised as 50w equivalent, actual output is no where close. Fortunately home LEDs list actual lumen output on the box so it is easy to compare between products, unlike aftermarket automotive LEDs that specify theoretical raw lumens which vary in actual output.

My kitchen takes GU10/MR16 bulbs and for my kitchen I used HIRs. 100 CRI 3000k. HIRs use an IR coating on the inside of a halogen bulb to reflect IR energy back to the bulb causing it to burn significantly brighter boosting output. Rather than putting out more light, the power can then be scaled back to put out the same light while using less energy. Result is a 30% energy savings with zero compromise in color nearly the same output. Not as efficient as LED, but outperforms LED in output and color while also being more energy efficiency than halogen.

Home Depot of all places has an outstanding selection of Philips HIR bulbs, they are the ones in the green boxes. Home Depot is also a terrible place to buy LEDs as they offer no high CRI/HD options.

GU10 HIRs
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips...10-Dimmable-Flood-Light-Bulb-428136/203865685

Side note, GEs HD reveal LEDs use a blue coating like a Silverstar bulb to artificially produce whiter light, causing a weird dip in yellow tones and significantly reducing output. This is the Reveal bulbs only, looking at the bulb it will look purple, I would not recommend them.

 

Thanks! I really meant CRI was less clear because I didn't remember the details and was too lazy to look them up at the time I was typing my reply.

I was unaware of the availability of HIRs for home use -- but well aware of them in automotive uses, having put them in a bunch of cars over the years. Currently they do high beam duty in one of my vehicles in fact. I'll have to check them out at Home Depot.

When I originally looked for LED replacements for the kitchen the big box store stuff had very low lumens, the specialty stuff was expensive, and halogens were still cheap and readily available. Eventually I found the lumens I wanted in a big box LED and was thrilled! But then I learned what I call the "dirty little secret" about LEDs, namely that they drop in output over time. In the case of the bulbs I got that drop was dramatic and immediate. I easily saw it with the naked eye after only a month. Using a 'light meter' iPhone app I measured a 20% reduction in output vs. a new unit. I will say that the lights appeared to have settled in at that output, but the 20% drop was too much for my needs.

So I bit the bullet and bought Soraa LEDs from 1000bulbs.com, which is down for maintenance at the moment so I can't dig up the details. I'll add them later. They start out kinda 'hot' in output but very quickly settled down; I wonder if they intentionally do that, so that the eventual output meets their advertised values. I have some that have been in use for over a year and have seen no change in lumens or color temperature. Hopefully I'll have another 10 or 15 years of the same.

Thanks again for the very useful synopsis!

 

I've looked at the Soraas and considered them, but the high CRI ones are pricey and I need quite a few. Seems like a good choice for the high CRI lights though. I didn't want to risk one more GU10 LED I had to return do to insufficient performance. When I saw GU10 HIRs I figured I'd use them this round, and in a couple years revisit the high CRI specialty bulbs for the kitchen. Anyway, all reason for the dedicated home lighting thread I am putting together.

Note that any of those app light meters will be highly inaccurate for LEDs. Oversimplified, but they basically sample a few points in the spectrum and assume an incandescent spectrum slope, when a LED spectrum is very different so the assumptions used in the calculations are wrong. Your losses could be much different than your measurement depending on what areas of the spectrum changed in relation to the measurement points used in the spectrum. I realize you likely just using it for curiosity, but just an FYI.

 

Cool! Link here might be useful, at least for some folks.

 

Will do!

 

Anyone have issues with high beams stopped working all I have is lows now or stuck on high. High beam doesn’t click on anymore. Got the rally light conventional with Parma super bright premiums h4 100/90w. 2014 Tacoma dblcab 4x4

 

Plugged new harness into the fuse box where headlight relay used to be. The old relay does have an extra plug in/fin on it.

 

I’m confused by this you should install the harness where your factory driver side harness plugs into the bulb at the headlight. And connect new harness to new bulb an passenger side unplug factory harness swap bulbs an plug new harness to it. Then wire to the battery should be good to go.

 

X2. Nothing should change or plug into the fuse box. The OEM relay should be left in the OEM position.

The harness plugs into the H4 headlight connector on the driver side as mentioned.

 

I'm looking to upgrade my newly purchased 2014 Tacoma with the GE H4 Megalight Ultra 120+ bulbs. I'm not interested in changing harnesses, etc but coming from a vehicle with HID's the stock headlamps are lacking.

Is there a good online (hopefully domestic) source for these bulbs?

 

Check out powerbulbs.com that’s where I got my bulbs good customer service an speedy shipping.

 

Awesome! Found what I was looking for. Thanks!

 

You got it.

 

We've had really good feedback from customers that have installed this Philips +130 H4 halogen bulb.

Steve

 

Powerbulbs does not carry the GE/Tungsram +120s. They do carry the +130s, but the +130s have the coating over the high beam meaning reduced high beam performance, the +120s only have coating at the tip, nothing over either filament for maximum performance. If you were looking at a +130 bulb, I'd just pick up the Philips Xtreme +130 which is readily available.

To purchase the GE/Tungsram H4 +120 domestically, you can order from Daniel Stern:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html

I have a new in box pair as well I'd sell for less. I'll shoot you a PM.