55W Xenon metal halide lights

Am I alone, tell me it aint so normal fellow motorists :-)) out there, but I HATE the things in the Subject: line!

55W maximum on old style bulbs, but on these things. Pleeeeze J
Reply to
J A Sims
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The message from snipped-for-privacy@bath.ac.uk (J A Sims) contains these words:

You'd like more - or less - or what? What don't you like about them? If you don't like them - why use them? Metal halide lamps have been around for several decades now - under various names - has something changed recently that's upset you?

Reply to
Guy King

I guess you don't like the light output.. hence the reason for the '55W mas on the old style bulbs'

You do know the HID lights are rated at 35 watts don't you??

Reply to
Hairy Arse

HID - commonly known as xenon - are considerably less than 55 watt. Blame the legislation for not stating light output. Watts are just the current consumption and irrelevant.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

True, but the two systems are different so you can't really compare them that way.

It's like comparing an 11 Watt energy saving bulb with a 60 Watt incandescent bulb. The light output is the same but the power consumed is less in the case of the energy saver

Reply to
Andrew Ratcliffe

The message from "Andrew Ratcliffe" contains these words:

I still haven't worked out what the original message was about.

Reply to
Guy King

I guess the poster thinks they're too bright. A 35 HID has approx twice the luminosity of a 55w halogen. Not usually a problem if properly set up, unless the driver doesn't know where the dip switch is.

Reply to
jeremy

I thought he was referring to HID lights compared to "normal" lights on cars, but who knows?!

Reply to
Andrew Ratcliffe

Ok, to simplify matters, I HATE with a purple passion these new fangled headlights, I reckons they are dangerous, and seemingly more so on these new fangled Audi's.

J

Reply to
J A Sims

On some cars they do - a Lexus LS400 that I was test driving, and considering a year or two back, had some sort of whizz-bang photochromic thing going on with the door mirrors. When the auto-dipping button was set on the rear-view mirror, a similar thing would happen with the door mirrors where they would auto-darken in bright light.

I dunno whether they would respond to headlights at night - or for that matter, how quickly - but they seemed to be responsive to bright light during the day.

Reply to
Douglas Hall

The message from snipped-for-privacy@bath.ac.uk (J A Sims) contains these words:

Ah, right, now I get you.

Yes, sodding dangerous things, but they're called HID, High Intensity Discharge lamps and have nothing to do with metal or halide.

Reply to
Guy King

They work very well. I had them on a Jaguar and I do miss them on my present cars.

Huw

Reply to
Huw

HMI lamps are used in film/TV and are a form of HID. They also look rather similar, colour temperature wise.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The message from Paul Mc Cann contains these words:

Worn 'em out, innit!

Reply to
Guy King

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