The Sylvania (blue) Silverstar bulbs do have very short rated life, because the only way to get legal-minimum flux (amount of light) through the light-stealing blue glass is to overdrive the filament. It works, but there's no free lunch; filament life is extremely short.
That said, the wattage thing isn't quite as clear-cut as it might seem. The wattage we refer to when we say something like "A 12v H1 is a 55w bulb" is just the nominal wattage, not the actual wattage of any particular brand and type of H1. In fact, each bulb type has a nominal and maximum-allowable power rating. For H1, the US ratings are 12.8v, 65w max,
1410 lumens +/- 210. The rest-of-world ratings are 13.2v, 68w max, 1550 lumens +/- 15%. Note that this doesn't mean rest-of-world H1s are different from US H1s; it's just the rating system that's different.Likewise, the little "Really, we promise, these blue bulbs are street legal, honest..." slips of paper that come packaged with Silverstar bulbs (to show to the officer when you're pulled over for having blue lights) don't list the bulbs' actual luminous output, but rather just list the nominal output.
Here's manufacturer data for output and lifespan at 13.2v for all the Osram/Sylvania H1 bulbs. Lifespan is given as Tc, the hour figure at which
63.2 percent of the bulbs have failed. (the Sylvania catalogue YPW pointed to uses rated average life, technically known as B50, which is the hour figure at which 50 percent of the bulbs have failed B50 numbers are lower than Tc numbers).Osram or Sylvania H1 (regular normal):
1550 lumens, 650 hoursOsram or Sylvania H1 long life:
1460 lumens, 1200 hoursOsram H1 Super (if Sylvania Xtravision line included H1, this'd be it):
1700 lumens, 350 hoursOsram H1 Silver Star (NOT Sylvania Silver Star):
1770 lumens, 350 hoursOsram H1 CoolBlue or Sylvania H1 Silver Star:
1380 lumens, 225 hoursNow, looking over these results, which one would you rather:
(a) Buy? (b) Sell?
The answer to (a) depends on how well you want to see versus how often to change the bulb. The answer to (b) is determined by how rich your company's shareholders want you to be, and is obvious: You want to sell the bulb with the shortest lifespan and highest price.
DS