flourescent lights?

[richardpalinkas]

hey guys, not sure if this is in the right area, but...
today i needed to replace some lights in my house, so i bought some philips energy saver lights. plug them in and holy crud, they are white, like super white. after looking at them i thought to myself "i wonder if they make lights like this for cars"

so theres the question, do they make flourescent lights for cars? or is that what HID's are? because they seem to last longer than normal lights, and give off hardly any heat, and are way brighter.

cheers, richard

[HoldenOnn]

Do a search on HID lights for your car. See if these are what you are looking for. Internet Search Engines are a valuable tool. Many applications for other type of lighting for cars also for both interior and exterior/underbody etc. Do a search for Automotive LED lighting. Do some research and you may be surprised with the amount of info you can come up with in a 10 minute internet surf. Goodluck and Happy Surfing.

[Phyco]

or is that what HID's are?

You are pretty well correct there:

Mercury vapor lamps were the first commercially available high definition lamps (HID). They are swiftly becoming outdated by newer more efficient counterparts like high-pressure sodium lamps and metal halide lamps.

High-pressure sodium lamps generally emit a more yellowish light, but are available with whiter light. They are usually the most efficient, and thus most commonly used, type of HID light. Metal halide lamps produce a beautifully white, natural light, but are also less efficient.

How do HID lamps produce light?

High intensity discharge lamps produce light when the gases inside the fused alumina tube are heated to the point of evaporation. Tungsten electrodes are kept in the alumina tube, and when the metal elements begin to heat up, they strike the tungsten electrodes, creating an arc of light.

[abg]

HID's and fluorescent lights work on different principles. HID lights have an arc of plasma which is the fourth state of matter (the others being the more commonly known solid, liquid and gas, there's also a fifth but that's not important.) In a plasma the outermost electrons of an atom are excited to a high energy state by extreme heat, typically in excess of 5000C. When the atom returns to its normal lower energy state it releases a large quantity of light at a very specific wavelength with the exact wavelength depending on the particular atom. Noble gases are usually used, argon, neon, xenon and the like although you also see sodium and other metals used.

Fluorescents contain a mercury vapour which is electrically excited inside the tube to generate ultra violet light. The UV light then hits a phosphor coating on the surface of the tube (the white coating) which absorbs the UV light and releases visible light.

HID use lots of power, typically hundereds of watts, are extremely hot and emit massive amounts of light.
Fluoresecents use very little power, usually less than 50w, run cool and emit relatively little light.

[nathanVY]

plasma which is the fourth state of matter (the others being the more commonly known solid, liquid and gas, there's also a fifth but that's not important.)

Interesting, please explain more.

[DLFHUB666]

Interesting, please explain more.

To put it in easy to understand trems it is an electricly charged gas an as stated it is the forth state of matter.Lightning is plasma .There may be a bit more to it but its been about 3 years since i did a course on it .I use to operate a CNC plasma cutter best job i ever had .

[nathanVY]

To put it in easy to understand trems it is an electricly charged gas an as stated it is the forth state of matter.Lightning is plasma .There may be a bit more to it but its been about 3 years since i did a course on it .I use to operate a CNC plasma cutter best job i ever had .

and 5th state? :P

[DLFHUB666]

Know nothing about the 5th state may have been mentioned in the course but like i said it was a while ago only remember the plasma stuff because i used it every day for 2 years an theres probabley a little bit more to it but thats basicly it . Anyone else know about the fifth state or can go more in to plasma???

[nathanVY]

Cool, thanks for educating me.

[abg]

The 5th state of matter is called 'Bose-Einstein condensate' and occurs only at ultra low temperatues only slightly above 0K. Wikipedia does a much better job of explaining then I ever could Bose-Einstein condensate. It's really a bit vauge as to how many states of matter there are, it all depends on how you define the boundaries.

[nathanVY]

[richardpalinkas]

cool cheers, i know all about HID, it was more do they sell flourescent globes?

[DLFHUB666]

sorry to get off topic before but i have never heard of flourescent globes for use in cars

[richardpalinkas]

yea neither have i, thats why i asked lol

[abg]

As far as I know the only fluoro lights for cars are the ones that run along the side skirts of the car and shine onto the ground and some mini ones for interior lighting. Both of these have mostly been replaced by LEDs as they're much more durable and have a much longer life. I think the first LED headlights may have been used on some high end euro cars? If not they wont be far away. In not too long I'd be suprised if LEDs for all lighting wasn't standard on most new cars and houses.

Also, for your home lights, you can get the 'warm white' version compact fluorescent bulbs which give a warm yellow light similiar to a standard incandescent bulb which most people prefer over the cool white version which feels a bit sterile, kinda like your in a hospital.

[axemurderer101]

As far as I know the only fluoro lights for cars are the ones that run along the side skirts of the car and shine onto the ground and some mini ones for interior lighting. Both of these have mostly been replaced by LEDs as they're much more durable and have a much longer life. I think the first LED headlights may have been used on some high end euro cars? If not they wont be far away. In not too long I'd be suprised if LEDs for all lighting wasn't standard on most new cars and houses.

Also, for your home lights, you can get the 'warm white' version compact fluorescent bulbs which give a warm yellow light similiar to a standard incandescent bulb which most people prefer over the cool white version which feels a bit sterile, kinda like your in a hospital.

you can buy led headlight globes but i dont know how effective they would be

2x Car 68 LED SMD Xenon White Bulbs H4 Fog Light 12V: eBay Motors (item 220679743947 end time Oct-12-10 00:03:47 PDT)

[richardpalinkas]

As far as I know the only fluoro lights for cars are the ones that run along the side skirts of the car and shine onto the ground and some mini ones for interior lighting. Both of these have mostly been replaced by LEDs as they're much more durable and have a much longer life. I think the first LED headlights may have been used on some high end euro cars? If not they wont be far away. In not too long I'd be suprised if LEDs for all lighting wasn't standard on most new cars and houses.

Also, for your home lights, you can get the 'warm white' version compact fluorescent bulbs which give a warm yellow light similiar to a standard incandescent bulb which most people prefer over the cool white version which feels a bit sterile, kinda like your in a hospital.

yea get what ya mean, i like the cool white ones coz it makes it feel like its still daylight when its dark, especially in the bathroom with all the tiles lol. i guess car manufacturers wouldnt go towards fluorescent lights if they havent already then