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Which is Better Headlight: Halogen or Xenon or LED or Laser or Conversion Kit?

Headlight constitutes an important part in every vehicle facilitating drivers and riders to drive smoothly on different terrains without any discomfort. Days have gone back when installation of simple bulbs was considered enough to satisfy driving and riding requirements of drivers during night time. In today’s scenario, you can use different types of headlights varying from halogen, xenon, LED etc. Although, the history of installing headlights dates back to 1880 when acetylene lamps were considered enough for vehicles, but with changing time the lighting system on vehicles has undergone vast technical changes that today you can find different type of lighting options being used by auto manufacturers across the country on vehicles manufactured by them.

Although, installation and availability of different lighting options where at one side offers clear visibility while driving during night, but on the other side it has also given a rise to debate that which lighting system is best for vehicles. Going through the strong endorsements made by manufacturers of different lights, we shall be discussing the various benefits offered by different lighting systems.

Halogen Headlamps
When it comes to installation of headlights in any vehicle, halogen bulbs are the first priority of almost every next auto manufacturer. The main reason behind their excessive use is their simplicity and cost effectiveness. With the life time of almost 1,000 hours while driving vehicle under normal conditions, the replacement cost of these bulbs is also very low. However, with technical advancement these bulbs are losing their effectiveness. The main reason given by manufacturers in their favor is that halogen headlamps are made from high temperature resisting glass and a gas (mainly argon or nitrogen) followed by filament of tungsten. When these bulbs are switched ON, the filament acquires electricity from the battery of car and gets heated up-to 2,500 degrees Celsius. The excess of heat results in wastage of energy.

The major benefits of halogen bulbs can be summarized as below:
 

• - Cost effective;

• - Easy to install and replace;

• - Available in different shapes and sizes; and

• - Easy to manufacture.

Apart from excessive heat generation, another major issue with these bulbs is that while replacing the defective bulb your hands should not touch the glass of new bulb. As this might leave the oily elements of your fingers on glass resulting in an uneven emergence of excessive heat and minimizing the life of bulb.

Xenon Headlamps
Considered as an effective solution of lighting system for vehicles, Xenon headlamps are also referred as High intensity discharge headlamps. The working of these bulbs are almost similar to neon tube. The headlamps are filled with different gases followed by an electrode installed at each point allowing smooth flow of current between all of them. The HID bulbs installed in vehicles use transparent quartz housing, tungsten electrodes and mixture of various gases which get activated through high voltage that passes between the electrodes.

Working of these lamps accomplishes into three steps, the current first flows ignition phase, after a high voltage generates a spark ionizing the xenon gas creating the way for current to flow between two electrodes, once this is done, the temperature of bulb increases at rapid speed vaporizing the metallic salts which minimizes the resistance between electrodes, finally creating light for bulbs to disburse.

The major advantages of this lighting can be referred as below:

• - Clear visibility, especially during fog nights;

• - More durable as compared to halogen bulbs;

• - Consume less power and generate extra light.

The disadvantages of Xenon headlamps are:

• - Costly;

• - Require more time to offer complete brightness;

• - More critical than halogen bulbs; and

• - Developed by harmful materials.

LED Headlamps
Last couple of years have witnessed excessive use of LED headlamps by major car makers in their new launched cars in India and global market. In-fact, it would not be wrong to say that installation of Led lamps is considered as luxurious feature offered in car. The working of these bulbs mainly depends on negative electrons which move against the positive holes within a semiconductor. When these electrons fell in a hole, it starts losing its energy known as photon. This process of loosening energy is known as electroluminescence.

The worth mentioning feature of these lamps is that they require less power as compared to conventional halogen headlamps. The major advantages of these bulbs can be summarized as follows:

• - They require very low energy;

• - Offer brighter light than compared to halogen headlamps;

• - Available in smaller sizes.

Disadvantages:

• - Cost of production is high;

• - Difficult to develop and

• - Generate high temperature.

Laser Headlamps
These lamps may be considered as the latest initiative in the hereditary of headlamps. An amazing fact about laser headlamps is that they offer 1,000 times better light than other available lighting options. But, now the question arises that how these laser headlamps work, because laser rays are considered dangerous. In simple words, the lighting system uses lasers for generating the light. According to sources of German luxurious car maker BMW, they make use of three blue lasers placed at behind the headlight, reflecting the small mirrors which focus their energy on small lenses having yellow colored phosphorus gas.

The major advantages of Laser headlamps are:

• - Energy efficient;

• - Available in small sizes and

• - Offer 1,000 times brighter light than compared to LED headlamps.

Disadvantages of Laser headlamps are:

• - They require cooling system because of excessive heat generated by them;

• - Their cost is too high; and

• - They cannot be used for both high and low beam systems.

Conversion Kits
This type of lighting system is mainly used for older cars, facilitating the owners to get the lighting system of their cars upgraded with latest lighting pattern. Normally, the most common conversion kits are HID and Xenon. The only thing while installing this lighting system in your car is to make sure that do embellish projectors else installing this kit without projector is not only illegal but also disruptive. If you are installing this kit into your car maker sure that it carries original bulbs, projectors, harnesses and ballast. It would be better to buy such kit from some renowned manufacturer.

Advantages:

• - The cost of installing them is quite low;

• - They offer better brightness during night; and

• - You need not have to buy a new car for enjoying clear vision while driving at night.

Disadvantages:

• - Installation of this lighting can be illegal in some regions; and

• - If this lighting system is installed improperly it might result in serious accident.