Bi-xenon HID kit. What color temp?

[Motorvated]

Ide go with the blue/whites...and run some nice yellow fogs for rainy/foggy nights.

 

[TRSCobra]

Ide go with the blue/whites...and run some nice yellow fogs for rainy/foggy nights.

Well, I have Hella 500 driving lights, and I'm throwing around the idea of getting the H3 3000k yellow kit for them.

 

[Motorvated]

thats what ide do than I always wanted to run the Bixenons in the TJ...I just may have to do it in the XJ

 

[Jonathan]

Cliffnotes: yellow is better.

That seems very strange to me that your lumens would be dropping while color temperature raises. Typicaly it is the exact opposite, the brighter/hotter something gets the higher the color temperature.

I think this is exactly the point that people are missing. The human eye isn't evenly sensitive across the visible range: there's a reason that traffic signs which used to be a yellow/orange color and firetrucks (red) are now transitioning to a high-visibility nasty yellow-green color: your eyes are most sensitive in that range. Have a look at the figures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_chromaticity_diagram and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImagelanckianLocus.png

The maximum on the y-axis is the point of maximum luminous flux, NOT radiant flux. Check the wiki link 90exjay posted for the details: for visible perception only the lumens matter when talking intensity. As Mongo noted, it can be counterintuitive. We expect a really high-energy light to be more blue, because that's the trend with blackbody radiation. However, the intensity produced is only useful if we can see it, and the eye loses too much sensitivity into the blues and violets, decreasing the effective lumens.

So really, the only question is what you'll be looking at with the headlights. The yellow lights will -look- about one third brighter, period. But if you expect to be staring at lots of very blue objects, go with the 8000K lights, since the scene you look at just won't reflect the yellows well. If you think that neutral objects will be more likely, then get the 3000K lights, which will also benefit you in any kind of unclear air such as with dust, smoke, fog, snow, or rain.

 

[jesterbomb]

I was gonna chime in here and say yellow (preferably amber), for increased contrast; but it looks as though that has already been covered or perhaps even debunked.

My first choice would be white though, regardless of wether or not yellow increases contrast. Why make it harder to see specific colors than you have to? A lot of important road signs are reflective yellow, but as you will have noticed; when they get dusty they lose the reflectiveness.

Besides...blue? C'mon the sky is blue, even at night. If you used blue lights, you may lose the ability to see the sky. Then how would you even stay on the road?

Edit: Where in the hell did all you engineer types come from?!?! Holy cripes this is funny. On a lot of similar threads people just say:
"Blue is for posers" or "Yellow is ghey, dewd."
Now, all of you guys come out of the woodwork with sources for your statements. Awesome. I hope this becomes a trend.

 

[Z22Z33]

Edit: Where in the hell did all you engineer types come from?!?! Holy cripes this is funny. On a lot of similar threads people just say:
"Blue is for posers" or "Yellow is ghey, dewd."
Now, all of you guys come out of the woodwork with sources for your statements. Awesome. I hope this becomes a trend.

We could even go into why it is better to use filters then having a colored bulb! :lecture:

 

[Pharaoh XJ]

the lower the temprature the stronger the light

 

[BigRed86]

Cliffnotes: yellow is better.



I think this is exactly the point that people are missing. The human eye isn't evenly sensitive across the visible range: there's a reason that traffic signs which used to be a yellow/orange color and firetrucks (red) are now transitioning to a high-visibility nasty yellow-green color: your eyes are most sensitive in that range. Have a look at the figures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_chromaticity_diagram and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImagelanckianLocus.png

The maximum on the y-axis is the point of maximum luminous flux, NOT radiant flux. Check the wiki link 90exjay posted for the details: for visible perception only the lumens matter when talking intensity. As Mongo noted, it can be counterintuitive. We expect a really high-energy light to be more blue, because that's the trend with blackbody radiation. However, the intensity produced is only useful if we can see it, and the eye loses too much sensitivity into the blues and violets, decreasing the effective lumens.

So really, the only question is what you'll be looking at with the headlights. The yellow lights will -look- about one third brighter, period. But if you expect to be staring at lots of very blue objects, go with the 8000K lights, since the scene you look at just won't reflect the yellows well. If you think that neutral objects will be more likely, then get the 3000K lights, which will also benefit you in any kind of unclear air such as with dust, smoke, fog, snow, or rain.

By all means i'm not saying that your wrong with your point, but you cant have wikipedia as your reference, cause anyone can just go into what your were just looking at and change the facts around. Thats the reasion why there is and edit under every section.

 

[Jonathan]

Although wikipedia articles are sometimes edited to make them less than totally truthful, I've found that on most technical issues they're spot on.

I suppose I could just make a claim, but everyone feels better if there's some higher authority beyond just an opinion.