hids, better bulbs, etc...

[chevycrew]

That's why I liked the idea of the 9012 and 9011, there actually is testing that has been done to show the lumen increase.

[Opeth]

I think they may be perceived by the eye to throw more light... but I question if they actually throw more lumens. Would be a very interesting test if someone had the right equipment.

I poked around a little, they are 5W higher than the OE's I had in there... As for the lumens, no clue.. Lol.

[Trail X]

5W is probably negated by the blue tint. Wattage is only power consumed, not power output from the bulb. That 5W is probably turning directly into heat which is burning out your filament faster.

The other side of things is that blue light scatters more readily. So the blue light bouncing back from the objects ahead of you are more likely to be scattered by ambient air and be received by your eye with less acuity. This is exactly why fog lights are sometimes yellow in color. The yellower wavelengths are less likely to be scattered and bent when passing through molecules. Your eye also responds best (perceived intensity-wise) to a wavelength somewhere around 560nm, which is actually a yellow-green color. Visual acuity actually drops off in the blue-violet range. At least, that's the way I understand the graphs I'm seeing. Eye response to light is rather complex it seems.