Yes it's bonkers. Apart from A. Going illegal or B. Full unit replacements how about C. Halogen bulbs that are uprated compared to standard H4 bulbs - the sort they have on Halfords. Has anybody tried them and what are your thoughts?
I've used uprated like Osram Nightbreaker, but find they have a much reduced life to normal H4 bulbs (and never done a side by side comparison so can't say how much better they are).
If you rarely drive at night, they could be a good upgrade, but if you're driving regularly at night be prepared for more frequent changes.
For lamps, the manufacturers give two numbers: B3 and Tc. B3 indicates the minimum number of hours 97 percent of the lamps (i.e. virtually all) last. After this time elapses, the frequency of failure starts to increase. By the time the Tc value is reached, 63 percent of the lamps likely have failed. Sorry if it sounds so complicated, but it isn’t that simple for all lamps of one type to last x-many hours and then to suddenly and collectively give up the ghost (although premium products do have very similar service lives due to their close tolerances).
Osram puts its cards on the table. The company lists the values for B3 and Tc. For a standard H7 lamp, the B3 value is 330 hours. To compare, a dual filament lamp from the 1960s gave off much less light and failed after around 50 hours. A modern high-performance lamp, such as the Night Breaker Plus, emanates full light for at least 150 hours. For the bluish Cool Blue, the B3 value is 100 hours
