Driving late at night, especially on dark unlit roads can often make your headlight bulbs feel as powerful as a candle in a jam jar. Unfortunately very few drivers realise that they can easily replace their existing halogen headlight bulbs with the very latest upgrade xenon bulbs. These high performance bulbs emit up to 90 percent more light than halogen, are completely road legal and can be fitted without the need for any modifications.
The History of Light Bulbs
To understand how xenon bulbs can improve the light output from your headlights, it is probably a good idea to see how the bulbs have developed, but don’t worry the history is very brief. The first headlight bulbs were very basic affairs using incandescent lights until, in the 1960s, car bulb manufacturers introduced the first halogen bulb, which was called the H1.
The creation of the bulb requires an airtight glass which is filled with a halogen mixture. Halogen burned brighter than their predecessors. To improve the lights further, the car manufacturers modified the filament. The filament is the metal wire coil in the centre of the light bulb. The filament allowed a higher beam intensity, which made more light. This light could extend further from the car than incandescent light bulbs.
Over the years car manufacturers working with light bulbs have tried to increase the light output even more. They also wanted to have a bulb that would last longer. With this idea in mind these manufacturers decided to use xenon gas instead of halogen pressurising it. Xenon gas has a higher intensity when it burns, which makes a clearer white. Halogen bulbs are a dull yellow when comparing the two different bulbs.
The headlight bulb manufacturers also worked on improving the metal filament coil and thanks to precision design, construction and materials, xenon bulbs can project a beam of light from your headlights up to 35 metres further down the road than ordinary halogen headlight bulbs.
Xenon Bulbs are direct Replacements for Halogen headlight Bulbs
Xenon light bulbs, due to the resources used, are identical in appearance to the halogen bulbs. For this very reason, halogen can be replaced with xenon by a simple upgrade. You simply remove the old bulb and install the new xenon lights in the same holder.
The holders and connectors for the xenon bulbs are the exact same as halogen. There is no increase in voltage or wattage, which means you can change the bulbs safely. You do not have to modify or cut wires in the car to make them work. The laws of the UK and Europe do allow xenon to be used on the roads.
Fitting xenon bulbs will improve both how far and how much of the road ahead you can see, making night driving safer and less stressful as you can see potential hazards earlier and react to them quicker. So as you can see, when it comes to comparing halogen headlight bulbs with modern xenon bulbs there really is no comparison.
Fitting a new pair of brighter xenon headlight bulbs is a quick and easy way to enhance your car lights and modernise your vehicle. To ensure your sidelights match your new xenon lights you can now also fit LED car lights that produce a crisply bright light and last for well over 50,000 hours.
