Need electrical guru advise

[Clerek]

Edit: I am not going through any relay or ballast. I was looking at some HID conversion kits and they all have these in them. Is this something I need if I am going to run the H4 light?

[b.walker5]

In a word... YES..

[Clerek]

Alright, I guess if that's the case I will just put the other light on. It isn't as bright, and it still get's hot, but not nearly as hot as the HID.

Does anyone know ANY way around this?

-Rick

[Ivan]

OK, you need to run a ballast on a HID since it is a mini mercury vapor lamp. the ballast gives it start up current which is extremely high compared to an incandescent lamp. There is no way around this. Its the same with florescent lamps and mercury vapor lamps in residential and or industrial applications. No ballast and there isn't enough of a current to start the vapor ionizing. After it starts the current required to maintain it is actually lower than that of an incandescent lamp.

The H4 bulbs I have seen all run over 50 watts. Some upwards of 75 or even 100 for the higher power ones. There is no way to use that much power through a very small filament without generating a lot of heat. As a matter of fact, the way an incandescent lamp works is by superheating a nichrome (or other alloy) wire. It used to be vacuum in the lamp to keep it from oxidizing and burning up quickly. Since there is no way to create an absolute vacuum, they started filling the bulb with halogen mixtures, which are inert gasses that displace oxidizing agents and allow the bulb to burn brighter and longer. The filament is glowing white hot, some of them are 2500ºF or better, and that heat will radiate to anything around it. In short if you want candle power, your going to have to deal with heat. You'll notice on newer high power halogen bulbs it warns against touching the bulb with your bare hands, since the oils from your skin will cause uneven heat build up and fracture the bulb. The higher the wattage the more critical this is.

[Clerek]

I know exactly what your talking about! We did a similar experiment in Chemistry last year...

So I need the ballast and the relay for the HID. It will have to wait though...Is there anything I could do to reduce the heat from the regular headlight? (change to a different fuse...etc)

Thanks Ivan!

[cywelchjr]

I know exactly what your talking about! We did a similar experiment in Chemistry last year...

So I need the ballast and the relay for the HID. It will have to wait though...Is there anything I could do to reduce the heat from the regular headlight? (change to a different fuse...etc)

Thanks Ivan!

No, not really, the heat is a side affect of the light coming from the bulb. Most headlights after being on for a while will get too hot to touch, it's just one of the issues of incandescent lights, which give light by heating a filiment to the point that it's white hot, the more light the more heat, which is why they came up with HID as they can create more light with less power (which generally equates to heat being dissipated) than traditional incandescant lights.

[b.walker5]

Watts isnt light

Watts isnt a measure of the light output, it's a measure of the energy used to create the heat, which creates the light. Light output is measured in Candela, or Lumens. All energy used creates heat, in this case 55 watts of energy inside a small glass enclosure. It's going to get hot, very hot in some cases. Grab the light bulb in your lounge if your not convinced. As Ivan and Cy have pointed out, the HID uses different technology to create more lumens from less watts, hence less heat but the trade off is the ballast required to fire the lamp.