Installing halogen headlights is straightforward as they simply click into position. However, xenon headlights are less effective in foggy weather conditions compared to halogen lights. The difference in lumens explains why halogen lights don’t illuminate the road as fully as xenon lights. Xenon headlights are over twice as bright as halogen ones, offering approximately 3,000 lumens and about 90 Mcd/m 2 compared to 1,400 lumens and about 30 Mcd/ m 2 for halogen lights. Xenon headlights have a colour temperature of 4000K-6000K, which is a bright white-blue light similar to natural daylight and halogen headlights have a colour temperature of 3200-5000K, which is a warmer, yellow-white light. In general halogen lights are cheaper than xenon headlights to produce, purchase, install and repair. Xenon headlights last a lot longer than halogen ones – 2,000 to 2,500 hours for xenon headlights compared to 400 to 1,000 for halogen. But, even though xenon headlights are slightly more energy efficient, the amounts are fairly small that you probably won’t notice a major difference. As xenon lighting uses gas as its energy source, it needs less electricity to generate the light. They also generate large amounts of heat, which is wasted energy. Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to ask: which type of headlight is the best? And why?Ĭompared to xenon headlights, halogen lights require less energy to start up, but more energy to keep going. Even so, it can take a few seconds for the light to turn fully on. The xenon gas is only used during the start up to give instant light while the other gases are still heating up to their operating temperature. The ballast is a capacitor that creates and regulates the high-voltage that xenon lights need to operate. The ballast switches to continuous operation with a constant supply of power so the light won’t fail. The temperature quickly rises, ionizing the gas mixture, lowering the resistance between the two electrodes.ģ. A high voltage pulse produces a spark that ionizes the xenon gas and creates a connection of current between the electrodes.Ģ. How do they work?Ī xenon (HID) lightbulb is a transparent quartz housing with tungsten electrodes at each end and filled with a mixture of gases. Also known as High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps, xenon headlights deliver a white-blue light, approximately two to three times brighter than a halogen, last approximately 2,500 hours and are energy efficient. Xenon headlights are more popular on high-end cars of the last decade, where they have a premium, stylish look. The bulb uses an inert gas and a small amount of a halogen such as iodine or bromine. The electrical current heats up the tungsten to approximately 2,500° Celsius and it starts to glow (incandescent process). It works by sending electricity through the tungsten filament inside the glass capsule.
How do they work?Ī halogen headlight consists of a thin tungsten filament surrounded by a halogen gas in a glass filament capsule which is extremely resistant to high temperatures. They offer many advantages: they’re cheap to manufacture, easy to replace, give a bright, yellow-white light and last up to 1,000 hours. Halogen headlights can be found on approximately 80% of the cars on the road today, making them the most common type of headlights currently available. Plus, which type is best for your car? What are halogen headlights? Keep reading to be enlightened about what halogen and xenon lights are and how they work. But what are they? And why are they considered better than the standard halogen headlights? Every time you turn around, there’s another car with xenon headlights.