“There is no doubting the popularity and ever growing demand for HID xenon lights.
The intense and powerful white light produced by HID xenon bulbs really illuminates the darkness like never before, and cars fitted with HID xenon lights are more visible and look more distinctive to other road users.
Although HID xenon lights have been in use for over 10 years now, there is still a lot of confusion about exactly what they are, how they work and most importantly how to get the HID xenon effect on your own car.
Can I Upgrade My Standard Headlight Bulbs To Xenon Lights?
There are two ways to upgrade your headlights to xenon lights, either by installing an HID xenon conversion kit or by replacing your halogen headlight bulbs with the latest upgrade xenon bulbs.
– Fitting an HID kit involves installing a pair of high voltage ballast units and two HID xenon bulbs in place of your standard headlight bulbs. These HID kits operate on exactly the same principle as factory fitted HID xenon lights. However because they are an aftermarket item they are not road legal, and fitting them could invalidate your insurance.
– Alternatively you could replace your halogen headlight bulbs with upgrade xenon bulbs. These high performance xenon bulbs look identical to standard headlight bulbs. However by improving the quality of the filament and using pressurized xenon gas instead of halogen, they can produce a xenon light output up to 90 percent brighter than standard headlight bulbs.
Whilst these xenon bulbs will never match the full light output of Xenon HID kits they are very quick and easy to install, and will cost considerably less than full HID Xenon Conversion kits and most importantly, are completely road legal.”
DVN comment: This kind of dangerous advocacy for the improper application of xenon technology is all over the internet. The explanation of why “HID kits” are illegal is grossly inadequate, and seems to have been made specifically to cause readers to go ahead with the installation of such kits. There is not enough information explaining the danger of such devices which will degrade the beam focus and formation and create dangerous levels of glare for other road users. The auto lighting industry must do more to present accurate, technically sound information to consumers explaining why “HID kits” are dangerous with optical detail at a sufficient level to be convincing, not just “because the law says so” or “because it’s aftermarket”.
