What Colour, Kelvin, Choose Wrong Could kill Ya

[Robo]

I have read a few post on here talking about which globe Colour or Kelvin rating to use.

Past experience has led me to believe that the wrong choice WILL KILL PEOPLE.
I work and drive nights and see all these different colours and have formed an opinion on this.
My job also takes me to accidents.
Its not nice looking at someone's Family, Mum, Dad ,kids in a wreck.
So I'm going to have m2cw here and now.
Trying to keep it in plain and simple

The area of the light spectrum of white around 6000k has all the colours we can see.
That is, can reflect back to us the most information it's simply how our eyes work.
But this is also how glare comes into play, proberly to much of the light spectrum.
The area of most light (all the colours) is approx 6000k.

Start going up, plus 6000k and you are heading towards the darker area of spectrum.
So that is self explanatory, dark equals less light reflected back to us, ya follow me.

Go down the scale, minus 6000k and we enter the area of yellow to gold and we can still see.
It simply reflects better back to us, and we can still see as a result.
Also without the glare as less white light is present.

The exact colour is always a personal choice.
My ideas.

5500 to 6000k good for head lights and spotties.
5500k better for spotties less glare.
5000k
4500k driving lights. "adverse conditions"
3500 to 4000k fog lights only.

Above 6000k entering the darker area put lives at risk, and waste of time and money.
7000-8000k light blue to blue, might look cool on a dry rd, but again useless.
excuse the expression, bugger looking cool, we need to be able to see properly.

most output , white 6000k
less glare, yellow tinge 5500k
less again, yellow 5000k.
even less yellow to gold 4500k
least gold 3500k.

Here's a link if you want to look further but it can get confusing kelvin light and kelvin temp and are 2 different things but sorta interelated.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=kelvin+color+chart&qpvt=kelvin+color+chart&FORM=IGRE#x0y0

Hopes this helps and keeps you all safe.
Cheers Robo:biggrin:

[threedogs]

4000k headlights 6000k driving lights, not point going higher only get that crappy blue looking colour

[mick.]

4300K put's out the most lumen's and 5000K is the cleanest whited light of them all. 6000K is starting to go bluer. I've actually got a lumens metre which confirmed 4300k being the brighest too.

I recommend 4300K as it's what is used in most OEM HID lighting and has the highest lumen's ratings. 6000K is getting bluer and is can cause fatigue. I've now got 5000K in my patrol and it's really growing on me. I forgot to mention that Land Rover and Merc are now fitting Osram CBI 5000k to there new vehicles

I'm got pages and pages of info on it from Osram and philips sites but what I mentioned above is the really short version.lol

Cheers Mick.

[Irvs]

I think 6000k is even too high personally, I wouldn't go above 5000k for headlights, I see it as a good in between of light output and glare reduction. Perhaps 6000k for driving lights because they will never be on against oncoming traffic but I would need to be sold on the improved lumen output and light penetration, they are the only arguments I could see for having them. Maybe a combo of 2 x 4000k and 2 x 6000k for all round performance?

From my high school science memory white light has a 'wider' (for lack of a better word) wavelength and therefore when it travels through the air it gets dispersed easily because effectively it's to fat to pass through things e.g.fog/mist
Yellow light has a narrower wavelength and therefore has a better chance of getting through the gaps in the fog and also refracts less off the fog/mist and therefore has less chance of blinding you by reflecting back.

How's that for two cents worth?

[mick.]

I had 4150K in my headlights and 6000K in my spotlights and I'm changing everything to 5000K. I fited some 5000K in my headlights and I'm finding there is really minimum glare compared to my 6000K spottes. I still love 4150K but I'm about to remove my old lightbar and fit one in 5000K and wanted everything the same.

Cheers Mick.

[Irvs]

I agree with Mick on this, 5000k to me is the sweet spot of output and colour, there is a reason that the major manufacturers chose 4300k as the oem globes and they probably spent a quid or two on research so my gut feeling is to stick around that mark.

At the end of the day we should be installing what we like and feel comfortable with as long as it doesn't put other drivers at risk, it's not so much the colour that distracts other drivers it's poorly aligned lights and or incorrectly installed globes, just ask Mick, he's in the HID game and I'm sure he's forever defending his projector lamps because of people doing bodgy installs of HIDs in reflectors.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

[Lonicus]

I read an interesting article the other day about lights and the effects different light combos can have.

A question was asked about what driving lights to install, HID or Halogen. The basic gist of the answer was that if you have halogen headlights, stick with halogen driving lights not HID. The reason being that once your eyes become accustomed to the bright light of HID when you dip them for traffic your eyes take much longer to adjust to the relatively low light of halogen, in effect making you somewhat blind for just a little bit. Like walking inside on a bright sunny day.

Seems obvious when you read it but I hadn't thought of it that way until I read the article.

[mick.]

I agree with Mick on this, 5000k to me is the sweet spot of output and colour, there is a reason that the major manufacturers chose 4300k as the oem globes and they probably spent a quid or two on research so my gut feeling is to stick around that mark.

At the end of the day we should be installing what we like and feel comfortable with as long as it doesn't put other drivers at risk, it's not so much the colour that distracts other drivers it's poorly aligned lights and or incorrectly installed globes, just ask Mick, he's in the HID game and I'm sure he's forever defending his projector lamps because of people doing bodgy installs of HIDs in reflectors.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2Your spot on mate. I get a lot of calls with guys asking how I can justify charging nearly double for a kit of the ones on ebay. Most of the time I can help them and explain the differences but then other times I give up. lol

It's surprising how many people have actually had just the HID bulb and ballast and when they went to my kit they didn't realise how little light they had on the road prior.


I read an interesting article the other day about lights and the effects different light combos can have.

A question was asked about what driving lights to install, HID or Halogen. The basic gist of the answer was that if you have halogen headlights, stick with halogen driving lights not HID. The reason being that once your eyes become accustomed to the bright light of HID when you dip them for traffic your eyes take much longer to adjust to the relatively low light of halogen, in effect making you somewhat blind for just a little bit. Like walking inside on a bright sunny day.

Seems obvious when you read it but I hadn't thought of it that way until I read the article.I'd never thought of that before but it makes perfect sense and you right. When I had halogen lights and HID spot lights when I dimmed my lights I couldn't see anything. Although once I fitted the projectors I barely use my spot lights or even my highbeams.

Cheers Mick.

[Winnie]

4300K put's out the most lumen's and 5000K is the cleanest whited light of them all. 6000K is starting to go bluer. I've actually got a lumens metre which confirmed 4300k being the brighest too.

I recommend 4300K as it's what is used in most OEM HID lighting and has the highest lumen's ratings. 6000K is getting bluer and is can cause fatigue. I've now got 5000K in my patrol and it's really growing on me. I forgot to mention that Land Rover and Merc are now fitting Osram CBI 5000k to there new vehicles

I'm got pages and pages of info on it from Osram and philips sites but what I mentioned above is the really short version.lol

Cheers Mick.

Just remember there is a difference between lumens and lux.

[melcor]

please correct me if im wrong , but i believe 4500k is the highest legal for headlights in qld.. i think its the best compromize between contrast and distance.. the yellow light is high contrast giving you greater ability to distiguish(bad spelling yea)between objects . blue goes miles but everything blends together, the exact reason y things on the horizon,eg mountains, all look blue..

[mick.]

No that's not right. We all have to follow the ADRs which are just a copy and paste of the European lighting rules and regulations. That would also mean you cant get a new Merc or Landrover registered in Queensland because they come out with factory 5000K bulbs. That is why we have this silly rule about having washers on HID lights. That rule is there for countries that have a lot of ice and snow on the lights which is also the reason most run hot water though there washers now. Washers don't clean your lights. That's like hosing a car and as soon as it dries it just as dirty.lol

Cheers Mick.

[mick.]

Just remember there is a difference between lumens and lux.Yes thats correct. I have a Lux meter but Lux and lumens usually always go up together with HID bulbs.

Lux is the SI unit of illuminance which is the luminous flux per unit area incident on a surface. (In english this means how bright the light is)

Lumen is the SI unit of luminous flux which is a measure of the perceived power of light. (In english this means how powerful the bulb is)

Cheers Mick.

[P4trol]

So apart from reading the writing on the bulb, how are people measuring the colour temperature of their lights?



Tipsy-tap

[mick.]

I can tell usually by looking at them. If you don't know the difference by looking at them the only way is to read the bulb base. Although most cheap HID bulbs don't have anything written on them which makes it hard.

Cheers Mick.

[threedogs]

All HID after market lights are illegal like projector style lights. once the start lookink blue youll draw attention. mine are 55watt HID 5000k on headlights mainly from failing eyesight.
I find them great for night driving, my driving lights are !00 watt AC HID 6000k all I can say about them is fantastic, the the 40" lightbar on roof. and everything is back to daylight, well nearly, as yes I carry halgen globes in glove box just in case.

[Robo]

Well that got some attention.
Ideas in first post on what k is only to try and get people to ditch the blue garbage and be more aware of their and others safety.
The colour as we all see alittle different,
is always going to be a subject of much debate for each and everyone's preferred colour.

What I am trying to achieve is bring to notice that there is a safety issue with over say 6000k plus.
Yes I gave a few suggestions, but that's going by majority average of what I see out there on the Rd every night.
hence the brighter 6000k headlights.

Personally 4300k head lights and 5000k spots.
Had 35w 6000k spots, but to much glare.
Replaced with 55w 5000k for spotties, a vast improvement, still a little glare off Rd signs.
Much easyer to live with 5000k than 6000k
I am happy to read that there is also so many like minded others out there.
Thanks for the input.
Cheers Robo.

[mick.]

It's a great thread and I don't think you will get many arguments especially from me.lol

Anyone who has ever rang me I always recommend the 4300K bulb for headlights but if they already have spoties with 6000k or 5000K I tend to recommend the 5000K as you want both colours as close as possible so your eyes don't have as many dramas adjusting when you switch off your spotties. I do keep 6000K but I try to sway people towards the 4300k or 5000K first.

Robo with projectors 5000K wont show up any glare at all and even 6000K is minimal as the light is focused on the ground unlike spotlights which rely the the reflectors and splash light everywhere.

Again it's a good thread and I think most of the people running 6000K or more are usually cars more so then 4wds. Although I still see a couple of 4wds getting around with them in.

Cheers Mick.

[threedogs]

Hate that blue look as well but found 3000k not bright enough 5000k ok for head lights been a while since I fitted them but thing Imatched them to headlights
great night vision with my failing eyes, bi-xenon on the heag=dlights too. 68 smd LED T20 front parkers that turn with indcator, and bullbar parkers are 30 odd led jobs, check pic of reverse 120 x4 smd globes and a 36watt spot light, every globe either led or hid

[Robo]

I think 6000k is even too high personally, I wouldn't go above 5000k for headlights, I see it as a good in between of light output and glare reduction. Perhaps 6000k for driving lights because they will never be on against oncoming traffic but I would need to be sold on the improved lumen output and light penetration, they are the only arguments I could see for having them. Maybe a combo of 2 x 4000k and 2 x 6000k for all round performance?

From my high school science memory white light has a 'wider' (for lack of a better word) wavelength and therefore when it travels through the air it gets dispersed easily because effectively it's to fat to pass through things e.g.fog/mist
Yellow light has a narrower wavelength and therefore has a better chance of getting through the gaps in the fog and also refracts less off the fog/mist and therefore has less chance of blinding you by reflecting back.

How's that for two cents worth?
Exactly yellower refracts less than white, and as a result less glare.
white is split up by water droplets in the air and bounced in every direction and you get white out so to speak.

I should add, stupid me for not being so blunt before but I was trying to keep it minimal.
Around 8000k on a wet Rd and you may as well just about turn your lights off 8000k is that dangerous in my opnion.
Cheers.

[Robo]

please correct me if im wrong , but i believe 4500k is the highest legal for headlights in qld.. i think its the best compromize between contrast and distance.. the yellow light is high contrast giving you greater ability to distiguish(bad spelling yea)between objects . blue goes miles but everything blends together, the exact reason y things on the horizon,eg mountains, all look blue..
Thanks for ya input
Sorry but I thought the blue horizon above trees, was the gasses the trees give off.

[melcor]

no actually everthing looks blue in the distance because the light is being filtered by the atmoshere. if you look at the light spectrum , red through violet , red is the first colour to be absorbed and blue/violet is the last . this is the same reason the sky looks blue and deep clear water is also blue/violet.. hence blue lights have the farthest penertration but no contrast..