#Halogen headlight bulbs vs hid how to

Once the HID bulb is lit, they draw up less power though. The ballast dam up the battery power and generate a high operating voltage for the HID bulb to ignite. How will a motorcycle battery power up an HID light then?įor this exact reason, an HID headlight requires a ballast. The main downside of an HID headlight is they need 250,000 Volts to light up.īut a motorcycle battery only produces a 12 Volt electric supply. You are going to get far higher brightness and better technology for the same price. If you are planning to buy a pricey halogen lightbulb for added brightness, you should rather go for an HID lightbulb. While the halogen lights are yellow, HID lights are bluish-white in color. Typically, HID lights are 3x brighter than halogen lights. Since they use xenon, HID lights are also called xenon lights. HID (high-intensity discharge) headlights have xenon in them which heats up and discharges high-intensity light rays. Consumes too much energy and dissipates too much heat.Most motorcycle headlights are halogen lights, so replacement is easy.And most motorcycle OEMs use halogen bulbs in the headlights.Īs a result, you have to keep on changing the halogen lightbulbs once a year or 2 years in the motorcycles. These halogen bulbs have an average lifespan of 1000 hours. Halogen light bulbs have the shortest lifespan among other motorcycle lightbulbs. The luminous intensity of halogen lights varies from 800 to 2000 lumens. So, if you are not happy with how much light your halogen headlight is emitting in your motorcycle, you can think of switching to a halogen bulb of higher power wattage. Typically, the higher the power of the bulb, the higher will be its luminous intensity. When we say the light is too bright, more often than not, we are referring to its low luminous intensity. Even simpler, in a non-scientific way, you can think of it as a brightness. Put simply, the higher the luminous intensity, the higher the light emitted per unit of time and per unit area (solid angle to be precise). Luminous intensity is the measure of the quantity of light in unit time per unit solid angle. The higher the wattage of the bulb higher will be the cost usually. The cost varies depending on the brand, model, and power watts of the lightbulb. The cost of a halogen lightbulb ranges from as low as $10 to all the way up to $50. The halogens include – Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, and Astatine. Also, there will be an inert gas.įYI, halogens refer to a group of elements in the periodic table. The light bulb is filled with a halogen such as iodine or bromine. Yes, it is the conventional light bulb we are so familiar with.

As a result, the heat dissipated is higher in these lights. The downside of low cost is halogen headlights consume more energy. You can get a halogen headlight for as low as $10. They are the low-cost headlight bulbs available in the market right now. But going from 55 Watts to 100 Watts is risky. If you are going from 35 Watt bulb to 55 Watt, things might work fine. Most housings for motorcycle headlights are plastic. But you also have to keep in mind the wattage the motorcycle can operate with. That will increase the luminous intensity for sure. You can try going for a higher-watt halogen bulb. And when the headlights go dim, you don’t like the halogen light bulb in your motorcycle at all. In older motorcycles, it is a given that they use halogen headlights. Most halogen headlights are yellow in color. It was only with the introduction of HID lights and LED later that their popularity waned a bit.Įven today most motorcycles have halogen headlights in them. In fact, till the 1990s, halogen lightbulbs were the universal motorcycle headlight bulbs. The halogen bulb is the most widely used headlight bulb in motorcycles.

#Halogen headlight bulbs vs hid how to

How to choose the headlight for the motorcycle?.

Let’s now dig into the details of each of these headlight types. For them, halogen or HID lights work the best. They are brighter and have a higher lifespan than halogen and HID lights.īut not all motorcycle riders prefer bright LED lights. Purely in terms of performance, LED lights are the best. Here is the comparison table between halogen vs HID vs LED lightbulbs: Parameter So which of these lights is better? And how are they different? Halogen, HID, and LED headlights are the types available to choose from for motorcycle headlights. From $10 all the way up to $300, you can have your pick. Motorcycle headlights are now available in all shapes, sizes, and costs.