Hello TS and chemistry101.

Sorry to interrupt/meddle in your heated discussion, but I can't help feeling amused with both of your respective statements.
Just wanted to quickly clarify that the life span of a Light Bulb (specifically the Filament of a bulb) is directly correlated to its 'burning'/lighting efficiency. In other words, the more efficient (a.k.a brighter) the Light Bulb is, the shorter its life span will be as the Tungsten Filament would have burnt itself out.

To simplify the explanation I'll go ahead and use 2 different but similar analogies:
a) Imagine the Light Bulb as a Runner. The faster the Runner sprints, the quicker he/she loses energy. If the Runner paces him/herself, it is akin to a Marathon (energy is stretched over a period of time).
b) A more closely related analogy would be a Candle-stick. If the candle burns brighter, then it would use up its stored-energy (in this case the paraffin-wax) at a faster rate.

Now, when you compare a Light Bulb to an Air-Filter Element, it isn't really a logical comparison (as in apple to apple, etc.).
Why?
In Chemistry lesson# 101 (no pun intended ) an air-filter element has zero 'moving' parts (i.e. non-mechanical/electrical) whereas a Light Bulb is a circuit which translates energy from one form to another (i.e. Electrical to Light).

Anyways, I hope the above explanation is simple enough to digest. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend for you to scour the Internet and ask Uncle Google for help

This post has been edited by rompers: Jun 5 2015, 11:42 PM

I agree to your point that the price may not justify the 'increased' brightness and shortened life-span.
However, there definitely are many out there whom would be ready to part with their money and purchase these 'performance' bulbs.

Reason: Brightness is increased by at least 3 fold, in comparison to standard factory-fitted Halogen Bulbs (that's a fact). To some, this is an important Safety aspect, especially on our pot-hole riddled roads. In addition, the increased clarity somewhat allows the driver to relax a little more which reduces driving fatigue (speaking from my own experience and from what I gather from other users whom I have spoken with).

However, there is a downside to all this as well (it's Nature's Law where every positive upside will almost have an equal negative downside ). You'll suffer a little more during rainy weather as the increased brightness tend to bounce-off the water droplets and cause some form of glare to the Driver (but it depends on how sensitive one's eyes are).

So, there you have it. I partially agree and I added some other points as well.
Cheerio!

This post has been edited by rompers: Jun 6 2015, 12:15 AM