Importantly, xenon headlights even reach their peak brightness very rapidly after being turned on. Xenon headlights also don’t emit as much heat as halogen headlights, meaning that they are less likely to experience performance degradation over time. In the long run, this means that xenon headlights wear out much slower. This means that xenon headlights use less energy overall while also illuminating significantly more than halogen lights.įurthermore, xenon headlights don’t degrade as rapidly as halogen headlights because the tungsten electrodes are not expected to be significant emitters of light.īecause the tungsten electrodes don’t bear any of the heat generated by the spark, they aren’t subject to repeated cycles of re-annealing of vaporized tungsten. In comparison to halogen headlights, xenon headlights emit up to 45% more light per unit of electricity. These advantages include:Įach of these advantages is worth discussing. In vehicles, xenon headlights have a handful of advantages over halogen lights. With a xenon lamp, the tungsten electrodes themselves also glow slightly, but it is not noticeable in comparison to the power of the electric arc’s light. Importantly, the amount of light emitted by the electric arc is far higher than the amount of light emitted by a halogen lamp’s passive excitation of the gas molecules surrounding the tungsten. When the electric arc excites the gaseous metals and the inert gases, light is emitted. Instead of lighting the tungsten directly, xenon lights pass an electric arc between the two contacts of the tungsten electrodes.
Xenon headlights have an inert gas, a pair of tungsten electrodes, and a small number of gaseous metals which emit light when excited by an electric current. In a xenon headlight, the components are similar to that of a halogen headlight. Whereas halogen headlamps rely on a tungsten filament to light up and only use light emissions from the gas surrounding the filament as a secondary source of illumination, xenon headlights flip the equation and use the gas as the primary way to emit light. Xenon or HID headlights work similarly to halogen headlamps with a critical exception which makes a big difference. However, there may be better options which use more sophisticated headlight technology. Now that halogen headlamps are challenged by newer competitor technologies. In the past, people have worked around these shortcomings by replacing their halogen headlights regularly, keeping their halogen headlights cool, and intelligently switching between using high-beams and standard headlamps to maximize the brightness of the light where it is needed the most. Low light emissions relative to other headlight types.In particular, there are several weaknesses to halogen headlights, including: Halogen headlights are far from perfect, however. When a manufacturer lists the expected lifetime of a pair of halogen headlights, you can bet the farm on their estimate being extremely accurate because millions of halogen headlights have met that standard in the past. You won’t break the bank by replacing your halogen lights.įinally, halogen lights are technology with a lot of history. Because halogen headlights are tried and tested technology, they are produced at scale for pennies. This fact means that halogen headlights are easy to replace if they become damaged. The vast majority of vehicles on the road have halogen headlights. There are several advantages to halogen lights. Then, when the light is turned off, the presence of the halogen-class chemical allows for the evaporated tungsten to re-anneal onto the surface of the filament, preventing the filament from becoming degraded by repeated cycles of lighting. The inert gas contains small traces of halogen-class chemicals in the gaseous phase.Īs a result of the electricity passing through the tungsten filament, the filament becomes extremely hot and emits light in conjunction with the gas surrounding the filament, vaporizing small portions of the outside of the filament. Halogen lights work by passing an electric current through the tungsten filament which is surrounded by an inert gas. A small quantity of a halogen-class gas like iodine.A dense metal filament which is typically made from tungsten.Halogen headlights are the most common on the market because of their low cost.