No-name lamps often "poor" performers
Good headlights are essential for safety on the roads. However, no-name auto lamps are often "poor" performers and fail to meet legal requirements. That is the conclusion reached by scientists at Karlsruhe University's Lighting Technology Institute after testing 100 H7 headlight lamps. Many non-brand lamps
- are too dim
- fail to direct light precisely enough
- fail to illuminate the roadway correctly
- dazzle oncoming traffic
- often lure the consumer with false promises that they cannot keep. Some no-name manufacturers, for example, wrongly describe their products as producing "xenon light" or offering "original equipment quality".
Inferior lamps deliver too little light
While brand lamps made by German manufacturers passed the tests based on mandatory ECE standards with flying colours, the supposedly cheaper no-name lamps were found to have too many shortcomings. A number of conventional H7 halogen lamps actually produce only 60% of the light power prescribed.
According to statutory regulations, H7 headlight lamps need to produce at least 1,350 lumen luminous flux. However, many of the lamps tested emitted only just over 1,000 lumen. Indeed, the poorest performers in the test produced only 824 lumen – while at the same time exceeding the permitted power consumption limit by nearly 10 watts. In short, they delivered too little light for too much electricity.
Safety risk for the motorist
The Karlruhe technologists were also highly critical of the poor geometry of many of the no-name lamps tested. In numerous test candidates, the position of the filament was so far outside the prescribed limits that it was barely possible to align the headlight properly.
If the light source is not at the focal point of the headlight, precious visibility is lost: the light is not cast onto the right-hand side of the road, for example; it falls only on the verge alongside it. Or the light may be directed too low, in which case not enough light reaches the safety-relevant point in the distance around 75 metres ahead of the vehicle.
For the motorist, this means greater risk due to restricted visibility. What is more, he faces the risk of the vehicle failing its next periodic safety inspection because of a deficient lighting system.
