# How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid? EDIT: are there dimmable xenon ballasts?



## roopeseta (Dec 14, 2007)

I have a 12v, 100w halogen lamp identical to thor x10 but the name isnt printed on it. How bright is this compared to these xenon 35w hid lamps? Is it 1/2 of the brightness or what?

Edit:
are there dimmable ballasts for a xenon lamp? I was thinking of putting a 50w xenon in this and an adjustable light would be very cool.
And thanks for the responses so far.


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## BVH (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

HID is roughly 3 times the brightness of Halogen - Watt for Watt so you're about 1/3 the brightness, give or take.


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## roopeseta (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

Ok thanks, i dont understand Hid is 3 times brighter than halogen. But this is 100w halogen so 35w hid x 3 = 105w halogen? Probably not right? So this HID is like over 200w halogen or something?


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## saeckereier (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

equal. you already did the math


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## MikeLip (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

I have a Thor 10MCP and a AmondoTech 30W HID. I don't know about all that fancy HID is 3X incan stuff, but the Amondotech eats the Thors' lunch. I suppose in terms of sheer area light the Thor may be pretty good, but the light from the HID is so superior in terms of color, beam shape and focus that it kicks the Thors' butt. And it weighs about 1/3rd what the Thor does 

The only thing the Thor does better than the Amondotech is warm my office up.


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## nanoWatt (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

One thing brighter than HID is Carbon Arc, but you've got a lot of UV.


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## 2xTrinity (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*



BVH said:


> HID is roughly 3 times the brightness of Halogen - Watt for Watt so you're about 1/3 the brightness, give or take.


For lumens this is true, but a 35w HID should still have an advantage over a 100W incan in surface brightness, therefore it will throw farther than an Incan of the same brightness.


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## Ra (Dec 14, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

The main reason why most 100watt spotlights are overpowered by 35watt HID-systems is that the 100watt bulbs mostly are long-life bulbs. On top of that, they are mostly underdriven by low-gauge wireing.

The Osram HLX 64625 (12v 100w) halogen short life projection bulb is rated 3600 bulblumens. High quality 35watt 4300K HID gives about 3200-3400 bulblumens..

So, compared to equal wattage halogen projection bulbs, HID has close to three times the lumens output, and three times the surface brightness (aproxx 1.7 times the throw)

Compared to, not overdriven, equal wattage, average spotlight bulbs (Thor 10M, 15M), HID has about 5-7 times the lumens output and surface brightness!


Regards,

Ra.


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## roopeseta (Dec 15, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*

Ok, im going to modify my "thor" with 50w hid or something like that. 


Does anyone know if there are dimmable hid (for xenon) ballasts? I as thinking like a potentiometer thing where i can adjust the lightning with a screw button thing.


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## Ra (Dec 15, 2007)

*Re: How does 100w halogen compare to xenon hid?*



roopeseta said:


> Does anyone know if there are dimmable hid (for xenon) ballasts? I as thinking like a potentiometer thing where i can adjust the lightning with a screw button thing.



Not that I know of.. Few ballasts have a tiny pot-meter to adjust power (Auerswald SYS-03510). But these mini-pots are not designed for and meant to be accessed many times.

But why would you want to: It's easy to find 24/50 watt or 35/50 watt boost-ballasts: Power-selection by a switch is much more reliable. On top of that, HID has a quite narrow dimmable range, 24/50watt is about the widest possible! 

From 24watt to 50watt indeed gives significant lumens-difference (and colortemp difference!). From 35 to 50 watt, the difference is already to small to desire any wattage inbetween IMO..


Regards,

Ra.


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## roopeseta (Dec 15, 2007)

Ok so ill have to find a 2 mode ballast. Hihg low.


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