You must always use a relay with 55 watt, but not all customers will go to the extra trouble to use the HID relay, creating a very dangerous situation.īulb Life: The HID bulb emits light by creating an electrical arc between two electrodes. Your factory wiring is only designed to provide 16-55 watts, depending on the bulb size, and if you wire the HIDs through your factory wiring, that much power draw can destroy factory wiring, and at worst, kill your car's "motherboard," which is usually around $1000 to replace. Power Draw: If a ballast is outputting a true 55 watts of power, that means it must draw about 65 watts of power, and when it ignites, it draws a great deal more. It is not cheap to replace a modern headlamp. This means that much more heat will be created with a true 55W of power, which is extremely hazardous, as it might melt sockets and housings. Melted housing, can be caused by a 55W HID kit That just means that the color is corrected for that much power level- read more about this on the HID Color page. There are no HID bulbs specifically designed for 55 watts of power. Running them at 55W of power is just "overdriving" them. HID bulbs are designed for 35W, just like all factory-installed OEM HIDs. Eventually, you won't get any more brightness, just heat. If you increase another watt, you might get only 19 more lumens. If you increase 1 watt, you may get an additional 20 lumens. Heat: More power also creates more heat! As power is increased higher in an automotive HID bulb, the bulb gets less efficient. However, it adds a number of risks, so Diode Dynamics does not recommend 55W HID lighting, for the following reasons: More power means a more intense arc of light, and more brightness. Nearly all "55W" kits are actually only 35-40 watts, and they are just charging you more for a kit that's really about 35W.īut let's say you pay a bit more, and get a kit that is indeed running on 55W. Is it really 55W? Before reading this section, remember that most "55W" kits on the market aren't even 55W! A cheaper ballast that is rated at 55W of input power, not output. Diode Dynamics slim ballasts actually output 38 watts! By just switching your ballasts to high-quality ballasts, you'll often improve the performance of your HIDs. Good, quality HID ballasts provide a true 35W of output power. Your 35W cheap ballast is probably drawing 35W input, not outputting 35W!Ī cheap, low-performance ballast will light up your HIDs just fine, but it might be only 60% efficient, meaning that your "35W" rated ballast may only be outputting 21 watts! That will result in nearly half the potential brightness! However, this is quite misleading- most suppliers will tell you the input power rating, or how much power is going into the ballast when it's hooked up. Most ballasts are rated at 35W, or 35 watts of power. The worst ballast Diode Dynamics has measured was only 52% efficient. The average mid-range ballast is likely around 75-80% efficient, and your "eBay Special" $30 kit ballast will be around 60%. The best automotive HID ballasts can reach efficiency levels of nearly 90%, with ASIC controllers and high-quality components. No electrical device is perfectly efficient. The rest of the power is lost as heat, which is a reason ballasts might get warm during operation. If you send 10W to a device and it outputs 9W, it would be 90% efficient. All ballasts have an efficiency, measured as the power coming out divided by the power going in.