Sucker? All I said was "Xenon bulbs burn much cooler than conventional bulbs." That is a fact, just like a 40 watt neon is cooler by far than a 40 watt incandescent. Of course they draw the same amperage. TG
First, I'm pretty sure that any incandescent bulb of a given wattage will
*generate* identical heat to any other incandescent bulb. (I might be wrong here -- The heat generation could be different if different filament materials are used. But to the best of my knowledge, all modern incandescent bulbs use a tungsten filament.) But the different immersion gases that might used in different incandescent bulbs might have different thermodynamic properties, meaning that one gas transfers heat from the filament out to the glass (and therefore out of the bulb) faster than another gas. This would cause one bulb's filament to run cooler than the other, despite *generating* an identical amount of heat. (The same way a heater creating "X" BTU's of heat will keep an insulated building warmer than a non-insulated one.) And it is the filament's temperature that by and large determines the temperatures at the electrical connections to the bulb. (Though the thermodynamic properties of the bulb base material and the electrical conduits inside it also play a small part.)
But I think what Ned was referring to wasn't the actual bulb temp so much as the temp of the wires supplying power to the bulb. *This* temperature is directly related to the current passing through them and nothing else. And for a constant voltage, a higher-wattage bulb *must* draw more current, and therefore must generate more heat in the wires that supply it. The only way to draw more current through a wire without generating more heat is to replace it with a different wire -- either of a larger gauge or a less resistive conducting material.
Secondly, putting genuine HID bulbs (and I've seen "Xenon" used to label both real HID lights *and* incandescent upgrade bulbs) into reflectors designed for incandescent bulbs is both annoying to other drivers and potentially dangerous for you. Such kits do exist, but should not be legal. The only safe HID conversion is one that includes new reflectors. (See
http://www.danielsternlighting.com) I don't know whether the "Xenon" bulbs to which you refer are actual HID bulbs (complete with a high-voltage transformer) or just fancy-named incandescent. But your remark about drawing less current (which real HID's do) caused me to suspect the former.
Thirdly, putting over-wattage bulbs in your car is extremely *selfish* as it improves your night vision to the detriment of everybody else on the road. Running over-wattage bulbs is roughly equivalent in driver courtesy to refusing to dim your high-beams for approaching traffic. It makes the statement "I can see better and I don't give a damn what price you're paying for it." I'll grant that there are some poorly-designed headlights out there that just don't do a good job of illuminating the road. But these are by-and-large aiming and dispersion pattern problems. And they're not a legitimate excuse to make the rest of us suffer.
The headlights in my wife's old Mercury Sable station wagon both blinded approaching drivers (even on low-beam) *and* did a poor job of illuminating the road (even on high-beam). The bulbs threw out plenty of light, but none of it seemed to hit the road -- it was all aimed too high. And no amount of adjusting seemed able to alleviate these problems. So while I was confident that obstacles (like deer or people or other vehicles) would have been safely illuminated had they jumped out in front of the car, these lights made driving at night very discomforting, because you couldn't see the
*road* very well.
Had we decided to replace her car's bulbs with over-wattage versions, we might have improved my wife's ability to see the road at night, but we'd
*definitely* have worsened the blinding of approaching drivers. I considered, but eventually rejected, the idea of adding driving lights, because they would have worsened the already-bad blinding of approaching traffic. (Which, BTW, is also dangerous in addition to being rude.) So we just lived with it until we got rid of the car. We eventually gave the car to my wife's sister, who's managed to avoid getting into any night-time accidents with it so far. But I'm still optimistic.
If I had it to do again, I probably would go ahead and install some auxiliary lights that were aimed nice and low, so as not to badly affect approaching traffic while still illuminating the road directly in front of the car. But I will never install over-wattage bulbs in any car, nor will I abide those who do.
- Greg Reed
