July 27, 2012

Let There be Light

To some people with certain beliefs (faith) the phrase "Let there be Light" means different things. To me as a frequent night traveler, I always prefer better and brighter headlights (within legal limits) for safer night-driving - i.e without annoying to other road users. 

Low Beams
First, I installed retrofit 35w 4300K H7 HID conversion kit for the low beams, unfortunately the existing reflectors could not focus the beams very well - the 'stray light' glare was giving nuisance to other road users (read HERE) . So, I had to install focusing (projector) lens in front of each HID bulb. The problem is solved but most of the light beams are converged (concentrated) towards the axis thus poor lightings on the road sides - especially on the right hand side.

Fog Lights
Next I replaced the factory fitted H8 foglight halogen bulbs with 35w 4300K HID kits to illuminate the penumbrae. Now, both  road sides are well illuminated. 

Low Beams + Fog Lights
4 nos. 35w HID (2 x H7 + 2 x H8) illuminate the road and road-sides uniformly bright without causing nuisance to other road users. Safer fast nite-driving now...

Hi-beams 
The Osram 55w Night-breaker Halogen H1 bulbs for the high-beams are bright enough but the reflectors focus the light beams narrowly. I replaced them with Osram 100w Ralle for wider coverage without increasing intensity too much...

Hi-beams + Low Beams + Fog Lights
See how bright they are now! But the power consumption at this brightness is now 340w!... and by assuming the efficiency of the alternator 33%, power loss just to light-up these bulbs is 1.4bhp !

Note: It is advisable to use halogen bulbs with color temperature below 4300K for the hi-beam instead of the HID bulbs  because the later take time to warm up to full brightness. We keep on switching on-off the hi-beam lights, don't we?

5 comments:

HID Conversion Kits said...

From what I can see, it seems like this is a very efficient lighting system. Thanks for sharing your photos.

Unknown said...

Salam Idilfitri Uncle, terima kasih atas usaha uncle berkongsi info kepada kami,....dimana boleh dapatkan osram rallye tu???

Wan A. Hadi (one.D) said...

Zulhilmi,
Selamat Hariraya to you too.

Uncle beli 100w osram H1 kat eBay. KLIK SINI

Unknown said...

Wow. I never knew changing out your lights could help you see further and better. I have been looking into hid kits. But after your pictures, I think I am going to be looking into them even more. I hate driving at night. I think these would help. Thanks so much for the information.

Gray said...

Hey bro, how do you change the fog bulb? Can't find any instruction on the manual leh.

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