They offer a bright and clean white emitting light along with less load on your charging system. The British pre-focus LED bulbs are the newest types of bulbs on the market today. Test #3 – British pre-focus bulb LED bulb Using the same formula I will take measurements and record what I find for this bulb. This specific bulb was produced by EMGO a few years ago and fits inside any headlight housing that can except a British pre-focus bulb. The second headlight bulb I will be testing today is a British pre-focus base with a halogen bulb. This is what I have found… Battery Voltage (under load) Using the formula to calculate watts I will take measurements and record what I find for this bulb. This is the same bulb that was fitted to most British motorcycles during the mid-1960s through the late 1970s. The first test I’ll be performing is on a standard Lucas 12V incandescent headlight bulb. Using the formula above is key to obtaining the correct data. To obtain wattage I must obtain the correct battery voltage, measure amps then multiply the battery's voltage to obtain watts. The goal of this split test is to record each bulbs amps to calculate the wattage and also recognize the draw that each bulb puts on ones charging system by performing a few simple tests.Ībove is a simple formula which will help you obtain wattage. The first multimeter is to measure the battery under load and and the second multimeter is to measure amps. I’ll be performing this test using a 12 volt sealed battery, positive and negative leads and (2) multimeters. The 3 types of bulbs I’ll be using for this split test is a Lucas 446 bulb, an EMGO 446 halogen bulb (446H) and the new LED bulb (446LED). If you have seen our product listings on the new LED bulbs some may get the vibe that it’s all fluff.īelow I will explain to exactly why we recommend using an LED bulb by performing a few bench tests.
Split test (Halogen vs LED vs Incandescent) The British Pre-Focus bulb or better known as "BPF" bulbs are unique to what is now known as a classic automobiles and also classic motorcycles.īritish Pre-Focus bulbs typically have a round base flange with a small half-moon shape locating slot to prevent the bulb from rotating and to keep the bulb holder lead contacts in the same position.īPF bulbs rely on the base as the ground where modern bulbs use 1 of the contacts or prongs as the ground.įor example, an H4 bulb with a 3-prong adapter uses 1 of the 3 prongs as a ground or common wire.
Original Lucas bulbs and headlight units from the 1940's though the 1970's accepted what is called a “British Pre-Focus” bulb. What makes the new 446 LED bulbs “smarter” is the fact that they have an IC chip built in to allow this same LED bulb to work with 6V, 12V and 24V applications.įurther below we will put the new BPF LED bulb to the test so you can see exactly how much you are saving and also gaining. Not only are LED bulbs smarter, brighter, cooler, and convenient they also emit a brighter light with more than half the load from a traditional bulb. In February of this year (2018) a new type of bulb was developed to cope with all the charging problems many experience today. With all the modern technology today why not have something more for less? If you happen to run a high out-put (200W / 20Amp) stator or a three-phase stator most likely these problems wouldn't effect you. Today's mentality is "I want more" out of an old system that just "works".īack firing, batterys going flat and electronic ignition problems are all leading issues that one may face when you have fitted a bulb whether it is a halogen, incandescent or sealed beam and your stator couldn’t keep up with the power it was consuming. Especially for later models with turn signals and other high-load accessories. Often times sealed beams and halogen bulbs put a heavy load on your charging system that most stock EMGO or Lucas alternators struggle with.
#Halogen vs incandescent install#
The other 10% is split between sealed beams and halogen bulbsĪll are great bulbs that will provide you with as.much light as possible but there are some problems you may face when you choose to install some of these bulbs. It’s 2018 and about 90% (educated guess) of vintage British motorcycles on the road today are still running incandescent headlight bulbs.
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