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100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:49 am
by lezmtaylor
I am at it again !!!
Have changed main (HB3) and dip(D2S) to 55w 6000k xenons. from 35w.

They are great, BUT have seen 100w  kits for sale at £40.

I buy all my bulbs etc from China and have had no problems.

Will the 100w kits cause any probs with heat (I know they are off road only).

Lez

Re: 100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:49 pm
by X5Sport
The only obvious things I can think of are:

Wiring - are the power cables and fuses rated for the increased power?

Plastics - you need to watch the heat output of the lamps themselves and as the colour temperature rises, so does the UV output. 

If the anti-UV filters are not up to it then you could damage the plastics.  UV radiation is very damaging to plastics generally.  You could end up clouding the clear lenses and this cannot be polished out.

Re: 100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 2:09 pm
by lezmtaylor
X5sport, thanks for that,
I have a spare headlamp unit which I could try out with the 100w unit, see what happens!!
I could also put a relay in.
Anyone else tried the 100w kits?

Lez

Re: 100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 5:19 pm
by Horizon
I put 55w  6k HIDS,in my old E53, brilliant, as good as factory Xenons, if not better.
I've fitted 55w 4.3 K HIDS in the X3, whiter light. They are more than adequate,
Robably better than my factory bi xenons in the 3 series.
You wil probably find that the 100w ones will have everyone flashing you , that will drive you mad

Re: 100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:01 pm
by snrbrtsn
With hids people wrongly focus on the wattage when they should be focused on the Lumens
Seldom will better results be had with 55w 5000k
Either side of the spectrum turns the light too yellow or too blue as per chart below
So really there's little benefit in 100w other than overloading the circuit!
Image

Re: 100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:15 pm
by Jimbo1956
I run 35w 5000k hid`s and find they are excellent,no issues with getting flashed or anything,I also have proper projector lenses,I would avoid fitting hid`s into standard headlights.

Re: 100w xenons

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:32 pm
by X5Sport
[quote="snrbrtsn"]
With hids people wrongly focus on the wattage when they should be focused on the Lumens
Seldom will better results be had with 55w 5000k
So really there's little benefit in 100w other than overloading the circuit!
[/quote]

True.  In theory you need to quadruple the number of lumens to make the light 'appear' twice as bright.

And as your image shows, the bluer you go then the dimmer they appear because the human eye colour sensitivity is centred on green so increasing the colour temp beyond a certain point is no advantage at all.