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Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

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aaron17
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Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby aaron17 » April 2nd, 2021, 10:25 am

I have been thinking of this for years now. Halogen vs xenon/hid vs led. I not into lasers. (Housing is no reflector)

Ppl saying leds are good coverage but strains too much on eyes. It also not good in rainy night. I have seen honda hrv with leds at rainy night on the road..to me it looks pretty good. I was just a spectator though...seeing the car from afar..

Hid/xenon.. i heard they are better for rainy conditions? It may have a better hotspot.

Halogens are too dull but best for fog and rain conditions. My opinion ....it never helped me in the rainy night and reflective road to see.

All i want is a good definitive answer that is final whenever I have to switch to a new light system with relevant housing.

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Re: Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby Duane 3NE 2NR » April 2nd, 2021, 11:41 am

Whichever you finally decide on please be sure it has proper cut-offs
Too many people are changing their headlights to aftermarket HID and blinding oncoming traffic because their headlights have no cut-offs

Image

I'd say Xenon HID have more advantages and less disadvantages than LED or Halogen once you use proper cut-offs
Halogens are not as bright as Xenon and they dont last as long
LEDs produce a lot of heat and not as good in rain
Lasers are expensive

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nick639v2
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Re: Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby nick639v2 » April 2nd, 2021, 12:02 pm

Color temperature of the emitted light is a big factor, ever noticed white streetlamps vs the warmer/yellow colors???

There's a reason proper fog lamps are lower in the color spectrum.. I was in a camping trip already, 2 vans, one with full led bar setup and led headlamps, the throw was far and it was like a second sun. But when rain fell totally different story, in the night the guy with 2 stedi spotlights at 3600k ended up leading the pack.
Function over form.

My np300 headlights are projector led oem, and for rain driving it gets demolished by a regular 2018 bt50 halogen. Sure in the dry and on a regular the LEDs looks nicer and are bright. But once rain falls. Is toots.


My recommendation, proper projector housing with 4300k hid bulbs.. had this in my d40 and it was EXCELLENT

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aaron17
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Re: Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby aaron17 » April 2nd, 2021, 12:18 pm

So why the normal halogen dont behave like the streetlamps light? Sodium vapor ?

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Re: Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby adnj » April 2nd, 2021, 12:40 pm

aaron17 wrote:So why the normal halogen dont behave like the streetlamps light? Sodium vapor ?
Halogen is filament. Sodium lamps are arc discharge.

You're looking at a few different parameters such as the optical bandwidth, center color temperature, dispersion, and efficiency.

The best quality lighting is always arc discharge - wide optical bandwidth, ease of reflector beam shaping and sunlight color temperatures.

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aaron17
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Re: Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby aaron17 » April 2nd, 2021, 1:27 pm

Oh ok

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Re: Definitive answer of headlight bulbs

Postby ruffneck_12 » April 2nd, 2021, 9:46 pm

nick639v2 wrote:Color temperature of the emitted light is a big factor, ever noticed white streetlamps vs the warmer/yellow colors???

There's a reason proper fog lamps are lower in the color spectrum.. I was in a camping trip already, 2 vans, one with full led bar setup and led headlamps, the throw was far and it was like a second sun. But when rain fell totally different story, in the night the guy with 2 stedi spotlights at 3600k ended up leading the pack.
Function over form.

My np300 headlights are projector led oem, and for rain driving it gets demolished by a regular 2018 bt50 halogen. Sure in the dry and on a regular the LEDs looks nicer and are bright. But once rain falls. Is toots.


My recommendation, proper projector housing with 4300k hid bulbs.. had this in my d40 and it was EXCELLENT



fax

Really noticed fog lamps usually come yellow ish. Then I noticed that white light scatter like WHOA and I understood why.


The yellow light doesnt scatter as much and you can see much better in rainy conditions.

I'm leaving my stock headlights for the while yes, love warm colour lights.

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Postby kamakazi » April 3rd, 2021, 3:12 am

They all have their respective advantages and disadvantages.
I installed 5000k HIDs & projectors in my previous car because the original halogens weren't very good. Haven't even thought about installing them in my van as the halogen headlamps are decent.

A sharp cutoff is good for not blinding oncoming drivers and driving on well lit streets. It is horrible for eye strain when there are no street lights. The constant adjustment of your eyes from bright light below the cutoff to no light above the cutoff will wear you out. From my observation, Factory systems actually let a small amount of light above that cutoff or there is a small transition from light to dark to reduce eye strain.

HIDs still have a bit of a warm up time
LEDs get closer to their maximum output a lot
faster when switched on

LEDs degrade over time. I am writing this from memory so don't hold me to everything. LEDs have a time to 70% output which is similar to a mean time before failure (mtbf) rating. Haven't seen it on any kit yet though.

HID bulbs colour shift as they are used with the colour temperature going up slightly. Can't recall if the light output falls off as well... But it definitely isn't to the extent as LED.

HID systems draw a lot of energy when switched on and warming up. On my old car it felt like I had switched on the AC.

As previously mentioned, rain appears to scatter the light output more as the color temp increases from OEM. I don't see many led kits/systems that put out light around 3500k - 4500k color temp.

Halogens are cheap and they work, bulbs easier to replace, but might require changing more often. Honestly I can't tell the difference between a 60w and a 100w halogen.

Aftermarket HID Systems don't have a leveling feature to adjust for load in the vehicle.

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