I am a little confused about the higher heat output comment, as was noted above by Dave, I was under the impression that not only are HID's more efficient than halogens, but also with a 35W power draw, surely the amount of heat is considerably less than a halogen bulb. :confused:

Not trying to argue, I'm just curious.

I am a little confused about the higher heat output comment, as was noted above by Dave, I was under the impression that not only are HID's more efficient than halogens, but also with a 35W power draw, surely the amount of heat is considerably less than a halogen bulb. :confused:

Not trying to argue, I'm just curious.

exactly what i was told, or thought. maybe its a urban myth. it just seems odd that im certain they dont heat up as much as my old bulbs did.

We fitted a set to the wifes last car and it flew through the MOT no problem twice. We never had people flash us and even took it over to europe and had no issues over there either.

I'm not sure if were going to fit a set on her vRS as we want to spend the money on other mods but we might get round to it.

Here's some pictures of her last car with the HID's on:

Chris

As mentioned earlier i don't think it's as much an issue when fitting them to cars with projector lenses already fitted like your bettle...... The bigger probs seem to start when fitted to cars that have reflector units fitted.

Cheers

Dave.

I was always lead to believe xenons emit LESS heat than a standard 55 watt halogen. My headlights don't get hot at all after the xenons have been running for a few hours, this isn't the case with halogens, they get much hotter.

A xenon lamp uses 35 watts to produce it's light output, a halogen uses 55 watts and produces less light.

More light and less power used must mean a higher efficiency hence less waste heat. Surely this means a HID capsule will emit LESS heat than a traditional incandescent lamp?

I thought the high levels of U.V. light from xenons was the biggest problem for designers.

Xenons also require a very high voltage to initially 'cold strike' the arc across the electrodes. This voltage then drops to a much lower level to maintain the arc - usually around 90-100 volts high frequency AC. Bear in mind a xenon fitting will draw relatively high current on the 12volt side while warming up, maybe 200% of the equivalent 55w halogen lamp - worth bearing in mind if retro fitting onto the OEM loom.

Mr Monkhai is quite right, the constant is the 12 volt supply, the higher wattage lamps will have to draw more current to run correctly. This in turn produces more heat in the lamp itself and the supply cabling.

think of it as a seesaw with wattage the pivot with voltage and current at either end, when one goes up the other drops equally and vice versa