This ultimately improves your fuel consumption, albeit marginally. HID lights are more efficient than halogen light bulbs, resulting in a brighter light for less power.It is usually mounted close to the headlights in the engine bay. When people convert their cars’ headlights from halogen to HID, the ballast is a small wallet-sized package that contains the necessary electronics. In cars that come with HID bulbs, the ballast is integrated into the car’s electronics already. The ballast is able to balance the system accordingly. The bulb operates slightly differently depending on circumstances, for example, when you immediately turn it on and when it’s been running for a while. In most implementations, the ballast is what connects to the car’s control system, and the HID light bulb is plugged into the ballast. As such, each bulb requires a ballast to operate correctly. Typically, an HID light bulb requires a number of minutes to warm up to full brightness, but the use of xenon gas helps reduce this to under 10 seconds.Ī normal car system operates on a DC current circuit in the 12V – 14V range, but HID bulbs need a higher voltage AC circuit to operate. This use of xenon gas is why HID headlights are often referred to as xenon lights. The automotive application of the technology makes use of metal-halide salts with xenon gas. HIDs are used in applications where an exceptionally bright light is required with good efficiency, and their most popular use historically has been in stadium and street lighting.Ī typical HID light bulb consists of two electrodes (usually made of tungsten) surrounded by a glass enclosure containing gas and metal salts. This description fits a number of other light bulbs, including neon lights. Light is generated when an electrical discharge is sent through an ionized gas. HID stands for high-intensity discharge, which is a description of the way the bulbs generate light. Each choice can be defended, and each camp has its own supporters, but in this article, we’re going to take a bit of a look at what HID headlights are. You can make use of the original halogen headlight you could install the cool HIDs or give the new shiny LEDs a go. Could be wrong here, which is why I asked OP to post pictures of his purchased bulbs.In the world of car headlight technologies, you have but three choices. Regarding the 55w statement, I was just giving an example to how the light output system for LEDs work.įurthermore, I believe the OP might have purchased LED bulbs not designated for headlights, as usually, LED suppliers don't write the wattage on the product but rather it's generation # and the lumen output. LEDs are a more efficient lighting technology than incandescent ones, and draw much less power, which is one of the reasons to why we have to code the bulb checks off, as the car's voltage check will cause them to flicker. This was previously discussed in the forums many times. That just means that an incandescent light with 50 watts would have the same light output as they do. The reverse lights I have installed are "50" watts. Example: Reverse lights on a F32 are ~ 16 watts. There really is a marketing strategy regarding LED watt rating, as I have spoken to several LED suppliers, many of them rate their bulbs' wattage based on that of an incandescent bulb with a equal wattage. I just have a couple of things to correct. The stock F30 both the low-beam and high-beam OEM bulbs are rated at 55w, so anything at that wattage and below are totally fine as far as your car's electrical system goes. That why you typically see HUGE heat sinks in the form of fins, folds of metallic cloth, or attachments on the back of LED low-beam bulbs and/or LED headlight housings in order to dissipate it. One downside to LEDs is that they produce massive amounts of heat over their halogen counter parts. It has the same current draw / power consumption as the halogens but produces over twice the output. A 55w LED bulb produces over 3000 lumens. A 55w halogen bulb gives around 1200-1400 lumens. Every light bulb's (halogen/LED/HID/.) wattage rating is an objective measure of how much current it draws due to its load. LEDs typically have around 2x-3x the lumens/watt rating than halogens.Īlso, there is no "marketing" as far as wattage goes. ) has a range of lumens/watt that that type of bulb produces. A 55w halogen bulb typically produces around 1000-1500 lumens. I don't know of any 55w halogen bulb that produces 3000 lumens. A LED bulb would be marketed as 55 Watt because it gives the same amount of light output as the incandescent but whilst using substantially less power. For example, a 55 Watt halogen bulb gives 3000 lumens. LED manufacturers sometimes identify their products with the equivalent wattage of their incandescent alternatives. If you are using LEDs then you should be alright.
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