There are currently three types of auto headlights on the market. Each car manufacturer has a preference, but many of them also leave it open to the owner of each vehicle as to replacing the bulbs with some other type of light. Getting a lot of high shine lately are LED headlights, which do have many benefits over halogen and xenon headlights.
Each of these has its own level of brightness, but also its own level of energy consumption. Led headlights haven't gone completely mainstream, but they are making their way into the cars produced by a certain set of manufacturers. The easiest way to tell if a car has LED headlights is to leave them on with the car's engine off for about fifteen minutes. Then the car's owner can touch the headlights to feel for heat. The LED headlights produce next to no heat and therefore the plastic or glass coverings over the bulbs will be cool to barely warm to the touch. They use very little energy even though they produce a lot of bright light, which is perfect in case the owner forgets to turn the car lights off when exiting the vehicle. The battery is less likely to be drained at the same rate that other headlights would drain it if they were left on for the same amount of time.
Halogen headlights are more common than both xenon and LED headlights combined. They cost far less than the other two, although they won't last quite as long. Halogen headlights are equally as bright, sometimes brighter than LEDs, but less bright than xenon. The filament, or fine wiring, inside halogen bulbs is made of tungsten, which requires more energy to heat up in order to excite the halogen gas in the bulbs. (They do last longer than fluorescent bulbs, but since fluorescent bulbs are rarely used in the construction of auto headlight construction, that's not something to concern oneself with.)
Xenon also uses a gas, specifically xenon gas. It has a lower ignition point and thus an extremely bright light. Usually luxury cars have xenon headlights because they are not cheap and because no one with an expensive vehicle wants to hit anything and wreck the vehicle. It's also important to have really bright lights on luxury vehicles such that the owners can easily see everything ahead of them, even through fog or rain storms. Anyone with xenon headlights will know they have them because they are blindingly bright; drivers in the opposite land often think the oncoming driver with xenon lights have their brights on because of how very bright xenon light appears.
In most cases, when a car was manufactured with halogen lights, the owner might be able to make the switch for xenon or LED headlights. LED lights are made for headlight, tail light, brake light, turn signal lights, interior dome lights and license plate lights. The owner could do a partial or complete conversion from the halogen or xenon lights to LED, if he or she really wants to. There are, however, some makes and models of vehicles that do not have corresponding LED replacement lights, and then the owner is just out of luck.
The first place any auto owner should check is with their own mechanic. If the conversion to LED lighting is possible, the mechanic can look it up on the garage's computer for confirmation. The auto owner can then pay on the spot to have the lights converted to LED or buy them from a local auto parts store and make the switch himself, which is easy enough to do. Check out V LEDs to get the bulbs required.
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