HID Kits and Halogen Bulbs
What is the difference between Xenon/HID Kit and conventional halogen systems?
HID Kits use different principles in the creation of light than halogen. HID bulbs contain a small capsule with a mixture of xenon gas and halide salts that aid in the creation of a powerful light source that is generally 3 times brighter than halogen bulbs. Halogen bulbs use a filament that creates light from basic ohmic resistance across a filament. While halogen bulbs runs directly from the cars 12V system, HID bulbs require a ballast that can supply accurate high voltage.
What can I gain from having HID in low beams, compared to halogen?
Having HID bulbs in low beams is widely used. Having a slow turn on HID bulb in a low beam application is no downside. It is solved by having the low beams come on right after engine is started, and they cannot be turned off before you switch ignition off. In general, there are only advantages to HID Kits.
What can I gain from having HID in high beams in a traditional open reflector based system, compared to halogen?
HID/Xenon Technology
HID xenon bulbs are quite a recent development in automotive lighting technology. The HID stands for High Intensity Discharge, which refers to the unique way in which the bulbs produce their light. Unlike ordinary halogen headlight bulbs, HID xenon bulbs do not contain a conventional metal filament, so in order to ignite the xenon gas and metal halide within the glass bulb a very high voltage spark is needed which is delivered by two electrodes.
The high voltage that is used to generate the spark is around 20,000 volts, which is considerably higher than a car’s normal 12 volt supply and so a metal box, called a ballast unit, is fitted to help boost the voltage. Once the spark has been generated and the bulb is illuminated the voltage drops down to a steady 85 volts.
The xenon gas belongs to the group of elements known as the noble gases, and is held within a single sealed glass tube above the base of the bulb. When ignited the xenon helps to produce a light that is 300% brighter than halogen, and because the light is also much whiter it more closely resembles natural daylight.
Don’t Get Left Behind With Halogen Bulbs!
The same basic sealed-beam incandescent-bulb headlights that illuminated the road in front of the Ford Model T in 1908 were standard equipment for many vehicles until the early 1990s. These headlights were simple, and they served the automotive industry well for half a century. Fifteen years ago, lighting technology took a leap forward with the invention of “high-intensity discharge” (HID) automotive headlights. In North America, they first appeared on the 1991 BMW 7 Series. Today, as costs decrease, HID headlights are becoming available on at least some models from nearly every major manufacturer.
Colour Temprature (‘K’) vs Brightness
It is a common misconception that higher colour temperatures (K’s) produce brighter lights. This is not true. The colour temperature only determines the colour but not the brightness of the HID light. The Colour Temperature is simply a scale represented by the Kelvin Temperature Chart (hence the abbreviation “K” or “K’s”) as decpited above that measures the colour of the light output. Typically, the higher the colour temperature, the closer you get to achieving bluish to purplish light colours.