Posts Tagged ‘Conversion’

Guide to Hid Lights Conversion Kits Xenon Headlight

If you are starting out with indoor gardening or you are a car owner, you may know what is HID lights. And in this article we are talking about the HID lights used in automobile industry.

HID lights go by the full name of high-intensity discharge lights. MH grow lights and HPS grow lights are also high-intensity discharge lamps. HID lights produce a great deal of light that more closely resembles sunlight than the light produced by either incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs. So it’s widely used in Automobile’s headlight, providing a higher and better light intensity with lower power consumption, it’s important for road safety.

When we talk about HID lights or HID conversion Kits for your automotive headlight, we should have some basic ideas on the bulb size and color temperature. For bulb size it’s the size for the hid bulb with refer to your car model, while for the color temperature, it’s the light color (temperature) that you choose for your hid lights, sun white (6000K) is the most popular one, and is legal in most country.

Here is some specifications for color temperature
HID Color temperature refers to the degrees (K) , which simply the measures of the color for the lighting output, like golden yellow, white, crystal white, blue …
Degree (k) refers only to the color, while lumen refers to the lighting intensity. So the higher the color temperature (degrees K) doesn’t mean a higher light intensity (lumen). Here is the summary for the common color temperature on the market –
3000K (Golden Yellow) , 4300K (Bright White), 5000K (white), 6000K (Crystal White),8000K (Crystal Blue), 10000K (Aqua Blue), 12000K (Purple-Blue).
5000K or 6000K are the most popular color temperature, and if you are planning to buy the hid kits with 10000K or over, please be careful about the legal issue in your country. Most of the 12000K or 14000K (purple) are using off road only.

Please make sure that you know what kits you need to install your hid lights, here are something you should know before purchasing a new hid kits.
1 . Single Beam Kit, comes with 2 pairs of HID bulbs, 2 ballasts.
(if your vehicle uses 2 pairs of bulbs, 1 for low beam and the other for high beam, you can take this single beam hid kit for your low beams.) Common Bulb sizes are H1, H3, H4-1, H7, 9004-1, 9005, 9006, 9007-1…
2. High/Low Beam – Hi/Lo Kit, comes with 2 pairs of HID bulbs (one HID and one halogen on each HID bulb to perform the high and low beam function, Halogen for high beam and HID for low beam.) and 2 ballasts. Common bulb sizes are H4-2, 9004-2, 9007-2.
3. Telescope Kit: Single HID can switch between high beam and low beam, with 2 ballasts and installation clamps. Common bulb sizes are H4-3, 9004-3, 9007-3.
4. Bi-xenon Kit: 2 HID bulbs on each bulb, which works for high and low beam, with 4 ballasts and installation clamps. Common bulb sizes are H4-4, 9004-4, 9007-4.
Most of the HID Conversion Kits on the market are 35W/12V, you need 24V for a truck. Some hid kits are using 55W, so buyer has to read the specifications carefully.

Saving Energy With T5 Conversion Kits for Fluorescent Lights

Larger buildings such as office, schools etc often rely upon large number of Fluorescent lights / fluorescent tube lighting.  The older T8 and T12 fluorescent fittings and tubes often produce a flickering effect, and aren’t particularly energy efficient.

Energy Saving T5 Retrofit Conversion Kits

There are now conversion kits available that allow you to retain the existing fittings, but use energy saving T5 tubes instead on the T8s and T12s. By doing so you could make energy savings of up to 50%, have better lighting – the T5 tubes are 85% close to natural sun light,  benefit the environment through reduced CO2 production and less mercury, and save on maintenance and replacements.  For example, T5 tubes can last 20,000 hours and the built in ballast can last 50,000 hours.

There are 2 main types of conversion kit:

The tube end kits – these have their own starter, and two pieces that fit over the end of the T5 tube so that it slots into your existing fittings.

The baton type – this is a one piece kit that slots into the light fitting, and then the tube is inserted into the one piece adapter.

How Energy is Saved

The magnetic ballast in old T8 and T12 fluorescent lights add a large additional power loss to the already relatively high wattage required by those tubes.  The conversion kit incorporates an electric ballast with a pre-heat function on it that works in combination with the existing magnetic ballast.  This different use of ballast has a much lower power loss – only 13% compared to 20% / 25%.  In addition to this, the smaller T5 tubes require lower wattages anyway.

There may be situations where using the conversion kits isn’t the best option. For example, if all of the fluorescent light fittings in a building are more than 10 years old, it’s probably a better option just to renew the light fittings.  Also, if some fittings are particularly difficult to reach / inaccessible / obstructed in some way, it may not be worthwhile trying to fit a conversion kit in that particular place.

One small trade off for using the energy saving T5 tubes and conversion kits is slightly lower lux levels.  This may mean that in certain areas of a building you may require a mix of standard and high energy tubes – although the overall saving throughout the building will still be very significant.

Compliance and Conformity

The fluorescent light retrofit conversion kits and T5 tubes have been certification tested in the UK, have an EC Declaration of Conformity, and comply with a large number of BS standards and other measures / regulations.