Anyone who has driven at night has faced the infuriating lack of proper light. Traditional headlamps barely emit enough light, and are only just adequate for driving at night. The situation gets worse in bad weather or when driving on a foggy road. High-Intensity Discharge headlights can ease your night time driving and drastically improve beam penetration in bad weather. Unlike regular headlamps, HID lamps emit a strong bluish beam that clearly surpasses stock headlamps in performance.
HID lamps started appearing in luxury cars in the 90s as optional upgrades and later as factory-fitted parts. Their practicality and performance soon caught the eye of other car owners and now HID conversion kits are available for most cars and models. Apart from their powerful light, they also look incredible and give an up-market feel to a car. HID conversion kits are readily available with specialized dealers. You can also buy an appropriate Hid Conversion Kit from an online store.
Tips to Choose HID Conversion Kits
HID kits give you power and performance far exceeding your stock headlight. As a result, they are quite expensive, so you would definitely want to take your time when buying one. There are few things that you should look for in an HID conversion before buying it.
The Ballast
The most important part of HID kit is the 'ballast'. Unlike a regular headlamp, which pretty much works like a filament-based house lamp, an HID lamp is essentially a metal halide lamp that uses xenon gas. These lamps cannot operate under normal DC or AC, but need a very high voltage to set up an arc between the electrodes. In layman terms, the gas inside the bulb is subject to high voltages and temperatures so that it ignites as the current flows between the gaps in the electrodes. This arc produces an intense light that produces the powerful headlight beam. The arc also needs to be controlled so that it does not overheat and cause the lamp to malfunction. The ballast is responsible for regulating the current and voltage of the lamp. As the lamp gets old, it starts to deteriorate, producing an effect called 'cycling.' Modern ballasts can detect this and will not allow the lamp to turn on when it is near failure.
There are two types of ballasts – AC and DC. An AC ballast kit is more durable and provides stable light for over 3000 hours. It is also shock resistant and has earned insurance approval. On the other hand, a DC ballast kit has a lifespan of just 1,000 hours. It is not shock resistant and does not possess any safety marks. High-quality conversion kits will come with AC ballasts that can provide 10,000 hours of lamp life.
The Lamps
Choose a kit that has a lamp made with UV resistant quartz glass. Also, pick a set that is properly aligned. Laser aligned bulbs are the best, but you may have to pay extra for it. The lamps also largely determine the beam color, and color temperatures of 6000K-6500K are the common ones available. These emit almost a white light. If you drive a lot in foggy conditions, you may opt for 3000K that gives a yellowish beam, similar to fog lamps.
Source : articlesbase.com
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