| I have always been a bit of an anorak about lights, it stems from my rallying days.
The blue tinge seen on car headlights stems from xenon type bulbs which work by striking a high voltage arc a bit like an arc welder. Conventional bulbs obviously heat a filament which becomes incandesent. Because the arc takes time to come up to maximum brightness ie about 7 seconds on the Hella system it is only used on the dip beam where it stays on with main as well. The Piaa system is superior but still takes 2 - 3 seconds. Consequently this expensive system only enhances dip beam on current automotive applications!
All other "blue" bulbs are achieved by coating a halogen bulb with blue paint or similar and cannot actually enhance the performance.
Most manufacturers will fit cheap bulbs as you can imagine. To improve lamp performance get some good quality bulbs. Piaa market bulbs at around £70 each from memory (we have them at work if anyone is interested) but I have only used them in cars. The results are literally brilliant.  |