Xenon automotive bulbs. Advantages and disadvantages of using them for the car

In this article we will talk about ds1 xenon bulbs for cars, how they work and what are their advantages over halogen lamps.

Xenon bulbs light

Gas discharge xenon bulb (HID bulb), unlike a conventional incandescent bulb emits light not by heating the filament, but through the electrical discharge passing between the electrodes, and creating an electric arc.

More precisely, it is not even just an electric arc, but plasma. The glow is formed near the cathode and is cone-shaped, with the brightness of the glow plasma decreasing as you move away from the cathode. The visible emission spectrum of a xenon lamp is almost uniform throughout the spectrum, and is close to daylight.

The principle of operation of a xenon lamp is based on ignition with an electrical discharge of xenon gas in a sealed bulb.

These lamps began to appear in the automobile lighting devices since 1992. An important advantage of xenon automotive bulbs is that they provide better illumination of the road for the driver, which significantly increases traffic safety.

How to distinguish xenon bulbs from other bulbs?

Unfortunately, there is quite a common misconception among drivers when halogen bulbs with xenon filling are called xenon bulbs.

In fact, such "halogens" have nothing to do with xenon lamps, that is, with gas discharge lamps.

As already mentioned above, the filament of such a lamp simply does not need - the source of radiation in a xenon lamp is an electric arc, about the same as is formed during electric welding works.

Advantages of use

What are the advantages of "xenon light", besides the fact that such lamps are much better than halogen ones to illuminate the road?

It turns out that with three times the luminous efficacy xenon lights consume half the energy. At the same time the service life of xenon bulbs is much longer than that of the "halogens".

Perhaps the only "disadvantage" to be named with regard to xenon light on the car is its high cost.

So why is xenon lighting more expensive than halogen lighting?

The fact is that xenon lighting is not just an appropriate discharge lamp (which itself costs a lot) - it is a whole system in the car. To keep the arc in the lamp you need about 100 volts, but in order to "start" a xenon lamp, you need to briefly apply a much higher voltage - about 6000 to 12 000 volts to the electrodes.

For this reason, a special electronic ignition unit is included in a xenon light system of a car, which at first "ignites" the lamp and then maintains a stable electric arc. The quality of this electronic unit largely determines the reliability of the entire car lighting system.

How to convert from halogen to xenon lighting

How can you convert your car from regular halogen light to xenon light? Fortunately, today this task is quite simple.

Until recently you had either to completely change the headlights, which was quite expensive, or you had to remake the seating for the xenon lamps, which made it difficult to get the right focus of the light beam.

Today practically any headlamp with a halogen bulb can be re-equipped to "xenon", since there are new xenon lamps with standard "halogen" base. Such conversion to "xenon" consists of installing xenon lamps instead of halogen, and connecting the electronic ignition unit to the on-board network of the car.

By the way, all xenon light systems, which are equipped with cars in the factory, have a separate configuration - ie, separate xenon lamps for low and high beam.

Some cars use a single bulb for both low and high beam. In this case, the installation of xenon light deprives the use of the high beam headlights, and only the low beam will work.

For urban travel, this option may be acceptable. For those who often go on long journeys, it is necessary to install:

• either a dual bulb, i.e. a xenon dipped light + a second halogen bulb - high beam;
• or a set of bi-xenon, that is, twin lamps.

These lamps have one disadvantage: the bulb with a halogen filament slightly offset from the axis of the xenon bulb, which worsens the formation of the light beam.

The telescopic bi-xenon lamp does not have this disadvantage, because its luminous bulb is driven by an electromagnet and moves along one axis.

Source: https://lampsap.com