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Peter Nitschke
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GT4.0 V8

Posts: 536
Reg: 11-2004

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Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 05:08 am, by:  Peter Nitschke Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This article kindly provided by Gregg Holden from Import Scene

Click for more information about HID kits.




Basics

OK, Let's start with some basics. There are three main types of bulbs commonly available. For the Soarer, they include factory OEM Halogen, after market Xenon, and after market HID (High Intensity Discharge).

Factory Halogen
Halogen bulbs are used in the majority of vehicles today but are being slowly phased out for XENON equivalents or HID. Halogen bulbs have a tungsten filament that are of a high resistance. Once electrical current passes through it then it heats up and emits light. The technology is inefficient and generates a lot of heat. Low Beam for the Soarer requires a 55w bulb with high beams being 65w.

After market Xenon
As technology advanced some bright spark (sorry for pun) discovered that using heavy larger molecule gases such as Xenon would slow down the deterioration of the tungsten filament and thus would last a lot longer. Along with the added gas many Xenon bulb makers also tint the bulb with shades of blue to give the light a cooler "Kelvin"..more on this later. The same wattage requirements are needed for xenon as listed above for halogen. The real benefit of Xenon is it's extended life and a blue tinge if that's the look you are after.

HID Technology
HID is set up very differently from it's Halogen based counterparts. Instead of a Tungsten filament it has two electrodes. An additional HID Ballast is needed to store up and generate a massive 25,000 volts across the two electrodes to excite XENON gas (and other gases) inside the tube. The excitement of the Xenon produces light photons. Voltage then drops to normal levels and the bulb actually operates a lower ongoing wattage of only 35w. This means that HID runs a lot cooler, uses less power but produces more than three times the light output

If you see late model Mercedes, BMW's and Lexus's you'll notice how bright and brilliant their headlights are...this is because they are fitted with HID technology. Why not put it in every car? Because it's a lot more expensive to manufacturer and produce. Prices vary but there is good reason for that too which I'll get to later as well...

Colour temperature differences and why you should care!

Right now to explain the Colour differences, "Kelvin" and all that...

So who is this Kelvin I've been mentioning.... Without going into too much detail Kelvin refers to the colour temperature of the light in unit measurement "k" - funny that. This means that a HID kit that states that it is 4300k means that it is very close to the daylight white which is rated at around 4100k (give a take a bit to allow for smog ). If you lower the Kelvin to say 2300k then the light output looks more yellow. If you raise the Kelvin to 6000k, 8000k up to around 12000k then the light gets progressively bluer (and in fact 12000k starts looking purple).

So why should we care?... Well for optimum lighting conditions for driving, the Kelvin should be as close to daylight white as possible. This provides the highest relative lumen output (ie: It's damn bright!). Once you raise the Kelvin and go Bluer the light actually becomes dimmer. Secondly, when driving you are more likely to fatigue faster when driving with bluer lights. So why are the blue lights so popular? Because they look cool that's why!

Also the whole reason that halogen based xenon bulb makers started making bulbs at higher colour temps (ie: Bluer) was to give the purchaser a sense that they will have a more white light than standard halogen with no tinting (which they do) and also achieve the blue flickering light that is seen from the luxury Merc's and BMW's that have HID... HOWEVER - this is not quite the case! Oh damn I'm going to have to talk about Reflectors and Projectors now....before we get on to the benefits...

Projectors versus Reflectors.

OK, now have a think about when you are on the road at night and some luxury sports car (Other than the Soarer of course!) is driving towards you with their lights on normal. You notice straight away that their lights look superbright yet they are not glary at all instead they look like a very controlled beam. THAT's HID! Then you notice as the oncoming car dips up and down on the road surface you see a beautiful tinge of blue and purple flicker off the headlamps and then they are magically back to solid white...why does this happen?... Thanks for asking!

Enter Projectors vs Reflectors stage left.....

OK, the reason for this comes down to two things. First of all the car will have Projector lenses fitted to control the light output. If you look at the Soarer main headlamp you will see that the low beam light is in a nice little round circular housing which is controlled and pointed directly at the road. This is a Projector style housing. If you look at other cars you will notice that most do not have these. Instead they have the bulb sitting out in the open amongst a stack of slightly offset opposing reflective mirror surfaces which serve to scatter the light out frontwards. When using Halogen type bulbs either method works fine with the Projector style housing providing a more direct and somewhat dimmer light than the reflector which usually provides a brighter light due to all the reflectors. However because of this very design reflectors look quite glary to other drivers. BUT because the lumen (Brightness) of Halogen bulbs is quite low this glare is quite acceptable.

However if you retrofit a HID bulb in it's place it will amplify that glare by three fold causing people to constantly flash you as they think you have your high beams on!. Not only that the light produces much more definition of each reflected surface causing "hot spots" of concentrated light and darker areas which would not be seen if using the lower brightness Halogens. In short it's bloody terrible and should be avoided. But we are lucky because Soarers are already fitted with Projector housings!... And therefore it makes it ideal for HID retrofits...

OK, back to that sports car with the bright white low beam and the eye catching flickering blue and purple light. What's happening here is the sports car had a projector specially designed for HID bulbs. Knowing the high light output and HID qualities the projector lens was designed from the factory to focus the high output light onto the road in a closed projector beam (Sh1t it's starting to sound like Star Wars...)

The light emitted is quite clearly a brilliant white (Probably around 4300k) but the blue and purple tinges you see are actually where the light is being scattered by the edge of the projector housing which breaks up the colours like a prism and you see this briefly as the car tips and sways.

Can you achieve this effect with a HID retrofit in the Soarer. In part yes. What I mean is YES you can have the same high luminosity bright white output like the luxury sports car but NO you won't achieve the prism effect because our projectors where not specifically designed for HID and hence are not quite as tightly designed for the beam and the surrounding edges of the lens. Is that a big deal? Well not really you just don't get the flicker.

Choices.

Because of this - this is the whole reason that HID Kits are offered at higher Kelvins ie: More blue so that you can get a cool looking light source however the light output on the road is obviously a continuous blue colour. Unlike Mr Luxury Sports Car who is bright white! You follow?

So you make the choice either you want perfect bright HID light output at around 4300k without any fancy colouring or you go for a cooler light which delivers a cool blue colour. At least with HID the Blues are still VERY bright as opposed to Blue normal Xenon bulbs which are a lot duller in comparison.

Alright, something you should also be aware of when choosing the Kelvin of the HID kit that may be after. Basically as the kelvin becomes more blue the effect for oncoming traffic is more glare. That's because bluer light refracts at a higher level than white light. You can see this by looking at the glare from a traffic light. When it's red (ie: closer to yellow on the K scale) the glare around the light is nearly non existent. However around the Green light (Closer to Blue) there will be a lot more glare...

So again you need to take this into account especially if you decide to install HID's in your '97+ fog lamp housings. These housings are reflector types (although not nearly as bad a main beam reflectors) and therefore already will be quite glary. They are low to the ground though so that helps but you should avoid going to blue in the fogs. Bottom line is the whiter the light to around 4300k the brighter and less glare you will get. Anything bluer is personal taste and will cause the light output to drop and produce more glare. Again you need to decide based on your personal preferences.

HID Summary

OK, to finish up. Here are the main benefits of HID kits over Halogen style bulbs (with xenon or without)

- HID's will produce 3 to 4 times the relative brightness than Halogen, Gone are the dim Soarer lights and instead welcome the BMW style brightness!

- HID's operate at a lower wattage, generate less heat and use less electricity

- HID's natively operate at around the natural colour of light to start with (Around 4100k) and therefore are whiter without any tinting than Halogen (which are around 2300k+ - although note that xenon halogen bulbs have a blue tint to make them appear whiter but that tint actually reduces the light output a little and is no where near HID).

- HID has hi flux which means a much deeper and evenly spread beam (especially when in factory projectors made for them, but will also achieve this in the Soarer Projector lenses).

- With the high output you will still see your lights on the road in wet weather! Unlike Halogen based bulbs (especially xenon based bulbs) which tend to disappear when it rains!

- HID will operate up to six times longer than Halogen equivalents

- As they say once you've had HID you won't go back!

So there you go! I hope this has been informative. Once I get the bulbs in (in a couple of weeks as they are on backorder), I'll fit them up on the company Soarer and will do some before and after shots. I'd rather do this than post pics off the net that other people have done because I don't necessarily know what kits they have used or the settings on the camera. Needless to say though you can expect outstanding light output from HID's...

And the price? Well as mentioned here there is someone locally selling them for as low as 200 quid - that's a pretty good deal. But I think I can do better! Normally the kits will retail at around AUD$650 to AUD$1000+. The price variance coming about from the quality of the manufacturer which may have an impact on the brightness and longevity of the bulbs. As I cannot say from first hand experience I can only comment in this regard from others that this is negligible these days and generally you can be assured of an excellent result regardless of the kit.

Normal Halogen Bulbs and the Halogen/Xenon alternatives cost in comparison only AUD $18 to AUD $40.

You get what you pay for.

Note: Which reminds me of what I forgot to say above. It is not advisable to install HID's in your High Beams. The potential to flash on and off is not good and secondly the low beam HID is so good the normal Hi beam will just give you that extra Sign lighting that you get now! In fact I've always thought that the standard Hi Beams are not that bad. It's just the standard low beams that are terrible.




This article kindly provided by Gregg Holden from Import Scene

Click for more information about HID kits.
Peter Nitschke
Moderator
GT4.0 V8

Posts: 537
Reg: 11-2004

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Rating: 
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 05:23 am, by:  Peter Nitschke Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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