Upgrade Headlight Bulbs: How to Get Brighter Headlights

In order to understand how the latest xenon bulbs work, it is a good idea to first look at the basic principles that allow a light bulb produce light.

When you switch on your headlight bulbs, the tiny metal filament that you can see through the glass heats up to a very high temperature, almost to the point of melting. However the filament doesn't burn up because there is no oxygen inside the glass bulb.

Normal bulbs, like the ones you would use in household lights are filled with a basic inert gas that lacks oxygen, however back in the 1960's headlight bulb manufacturers realised that if they filled the glass bulb with a halogen gas, instead of the basic inert gas, the light would be much brighter.

Now, thanks to further research and development by car bulb manufacturers like Osram, it is possible to fill the glass bulbs with pressurised xenon gas, which results in a bulb that is even brighter than a halogen bulb.

In addition the car bulb manufacturers have redesigned the filament and used high grade materials to optimise the light that is produced by the xenon, creating the brightest headlight bulbs ever.

So, what is the result of all these changes?........
........well, the very best of the latest generation of xenon bulbs can produce up to 90% more light than that produced by halogen bulbs, the light is much whiter and the beam that the emit stretches a further 35 meters into the darkness.

Because xenon bulbs are identical to the headlight bulbs that are already fitted in you car, with the exception of the pressurised xenon gas and precision filament, they are designed to fit your existing headlight bulb holders.

Fitting them is as simple as removing the old halogen bulbs and installing the new xenon bulbs in their place.

Of course the ease with which you can change your headlight bulbs does vary from car to car, and whilst some car models make the job easy, by giving you plenty of room to access the bulb holders, others can be quite fiddly especially if the battery or air filter box is in the way.

Normally the job takes around 20 minutes and requires no specialist tools, modifications to your car lights or the need to cut or solder any wires. Best of all, upgrade xenon bulbs are completely legal to use on public roads and will not cause any problems with passing an MOT.

Essentially xenon bulbs are available in three varieties, those with clear glass, those with completely blue tinted glass and those with partially tinted blue glass.

Clear glass xenon bulbs are designed to emit the maximum amount of light without any filters.

Blue xenon tinted bulbs are designed to emit a blue hue from your headlights to give them a really stylish look and in addition the blue light makes the white road markings stand out more clearly making them easier to see.

Unfortunately putting a blue tint on the glass bulbs does restrict some of the light output, so to get the best of both worlds the very latest xenon bulbs like the Osram Night Breaker and Philips Extreme Power have partially tinted blue glass.

The effect of this partially tint is to get the bright and powerful light that you would expect from a clear xenon bulb coupled with the stylish tint you would see from a blue tinted bulb.

As their name suggests high wattage headlight car bulbs operate at a much high wattage, and so are considerably more brighter than standard halogen bulbs. Normally a headlight bulbs operates at around 50-55 watts, whereas high wattage bulbs can be around 100 to 130 watts, meaning they are nearly three times brighter.

In a competition between high wattage bulbs and upgrade xenon bulbs, the high wattage headlight bulbs will always be brighter. However high wattage bulbs do have one very big draw back.... they are not legal on public roads, because they are so bright they can easily blind oncoming drivers.

Despite not being road legal high wattage headlight bulbs have a wide range of automotive uses, especially in areas where a lot of light is required.

Typical vehicles that use high wattage headlight bulbs are:
- Forestry or Construction Services
- Rally Cars
- Off Road 4x4's
- Emergency Vehicles
- Agricultural Vehicles
- Track Day Cars

One final point to note if you are considering fitting high wattage headlight bulbs is that they generate a lot more heat than standard car bulbs, and place a higher load through a vehicles electrical system, so its a good idea to check you vehicles wiring can cope with the extra load.

Its important to remember that both the upgrade xenon bulbs and the high wattage headlight bulbs are high performance items, that have been tweaked to the max to give the best lighting performance possible. As such these bulbs will not last as long as a standard headlight bulbs, which has a typical life span of 400 to 600 hours, but will deliver vastly superior light output from you car headlights.

Quality does vary between the various xenon bulb manufacturers, however normally you can expect a xenon bulb to last half as long as a standard bulb, so expect between 200 to 300 hours of life.

The lifespan of a high wattage headlight bulb depends greatly on their wattage, so whilst they will not last as long as a standard bulb, a 80 watt headlight bulb will last much longer than a 130 watt version.