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HID Lighting Advantages In The Automotive Environment
by Janus Onbekend Content Writer It was in the early 1990s that BMW began using high intensity discharge (HID) headlamps, first in its high-end 7-series models and finally trickling down to their entry-level models. As anyone who has driven HID-equipped cars can attest, HID lights provide vastly improved visibility for night and bad-weather driving. But while having a much brighter light drew no complaints from the people driving the cars, other motorists did complain about the increased glare from the much brighter lights. Thus, lens designs were modified to provide a sharper cutoff, and leveling systems (to correct for vehicle load and attitude) were introduced to keep the light where it should be -- on the road.As is apparent as soon as you hit the light switch, the obvious advantage of HID lighting is the much greater light output. HIDs provide as much as three times light output over the standard 55 watt halogen headlamps. For people suffering from poor visibility when driving at night, this is a crucial, life-saving difference. The longer and wider throw of HID headlamps provide a much larger margin for spotting obstacles or road dangers. Lack of visibility is the most often cited cause of accidents in night driving, and apart from the seeing farther, HID lighting increases the visibility radius by up to 70 percent. But as we’ve mentioned, the wider radius can cause glare to oncoming motorists. This is the reason for lenses being designed for high intensity lights.
Apart from these readily apparent advantages, HID lamps, or at least the ones that come from the well-established manufacturers, last many times longer than halogen bulbs. This improved longevity comes mainly from the lack of a filament in an HID bulb. The filament, which has been a component of mainstream bulbs ever since the light bulb was invented, is subject to burnout and vibration. Since an HID bulb is fired by a Xenon gas arcing inside the glass, there is no filament to burn out or cut due to vibration. Although the Xenon gas inside a bulb will theoretically last up to 10 years, an HID bulb will realistically have a life of 2,000 hours, more or less. Now, if you think that Xenon bulbs, due to their greater intensity, will use up much more power, that is not the case. Early adopters of HID headlamp conversions were sruprised that replacement bulbs were actually rated at around 35 watts. So, while giving off three times more light, HID bulbs actually consume 25% less electricity compared to halogen bulbs.
Although currently advertised as Xenon headlamps, automotive HID systems could be more accurately described as metal-halide lamps. But since metal-halide bulbs require up to 30 seconds to fully vaporize the sodium and scandium elements needed to reach full light intensity, xenon gas is used to provide light as soon as the user switches the headlights on. Otherwise, waiting half a minute just to be able to drive away would make these types of lights grossly impractical. When considering a retrofit HID system for your car, bear in mind that the bulb itself is normally longer than the halogen bulb it will replace. There is also the ballast system to consider, which should be placed close to the bulb. Once installed, it’s good and responsible practice to check the alignment of your headlamps, so that the increased output causes the minimum glare to oncoming motorists.
For quality HID lighting systems, check out the Octane Motorsports website here.
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About Janus Onbekend 
Content Writer
5 connections, 0 recommendations, 20 honor points.Joined APSense since, August 14th, 2012, From Los Angeles, United States.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
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