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HID FAQ

Color Temperature: 3000K
3000K emits GOLDEN YELLOW color and offers superior penetration power during adverse weather epically in dense fog. The applications of the 3000K kit aim more towards secondary lighting apparatus such as high beam and fog lights. This is the color temperature that will catch all the attention on the road.
Color Temperature: 4300K

The light appears fairly white, and has light yellowish hue when reflected off the road identical to the OEM HID equipped vehicles. It is ideal for customers who does a lot of back road or canyon driving and need the optimal visibility.

Color Temperature: 6000K
6000K emits pure white light with very slight and barely noticeable tint of blue and purple. This color is for customers who is looking for pure performance white while improving the looks of their headlight.
Color Temperature: 8000K
ORACLE 8000K has an approximately 3000lm output, which is about 3x the light output of the traditional halogen light and slightly less light output compared to the 6000K. While it has a bit lesser light output, it emits bluer light than the 6000K.
Color Temperature: 10000K
ORACLE 10000K has an approximately 2800lm output, which is more than 2x the light output of the traditional halogen light. 10000K produces a deep blue light output approaching violet and the blue is noticeably deeper than the 8000K.
Color Temperature: 12000K
This color temperature puts out a deep bluish violet light and is deeper colored than the 10000K. It is for customer who is looking for the most extreme and most exotic looking light output.
Common HID Misconceptions:

#1: The higher the K (Kelvin temperature) the brighter it gets.

The Kelvin Scale measures color not brightness. The brightness is actually inversely proportional to the light output. 4500K HID is technically the brightest and the further you increase or decrease from 4500K the lumens (the visible light) will slightly decrease.

#2 HIDs are so bright they will melt your headlights.

Xenon runs cooler and than your traditional halogen, therefore it will not melt your housing. HID is a much more efficient type of lighting therefore only needs 35w to run, opposed to 55w for halogen. Lower draw means lower temperatures and no melted housings.

A: HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. It refers to lighting technology that relies on an electrical charge to ignite xenon gas contained in a sealed bulb. The technology of HID automotive lamps is similar to that of common vapor-filled street lamps. HID lighting doesn't have a filament but instead creates light by igniting an arc between two electrodes. HID lights get their name from the intense white light produced by the electrical discharge. HID lamps are also called xenon lamps, referring to a gas inside the lamps. HID general lighting has been used for years in sports arenas and stadiums around the country.

Like the name implies, high intensity discharge lighting creates a very bright light that is ideal for night time driving. Though the color of the light is often perceived as having a bluish tint when viewed at night, most of the light that is produced by HID headlamps is actually very close in color to natural noontime sunlight -- though some of the light produced is also in the blue and ultraviolet spectrum. Halogen headlamps, by comparison, are more yellowish in appearance but are brighter and whiter than older incandescent style headlamps.

The near-white light produced by HID headlamps improves visibility and makes it easier to see distant objects.

The color of light can be measured in "degrees Kelvin," which refers to the "temperature" (shade) of light. Natural sunlight at noon is 4870 degrees K. Light produced by a HID xenon bulb is 4100 degrees K. Light from a standard halogen bulb is 3200 degrees K, and that from an ordinary incandescent bulb is 2800 degrees K. The lower the temperature rating, the more yellowish the light appears.

Blue-white light is better for visual perception, but yellow light is actually somewhat better for reducing glare in fog, rain and snow (that's why fog lights are yellow).

The xenon bulbs that are used in HID lighting systems also produce three times the light output of standard halogen headlamps (3000 lumens versus 1000 lumens), and require less energy (35 watts versus 55 watts). This is possible because HID lighting systems work like a vapor-filled street light or metal halide lamp. HID bulbs typically produce 71 lumens of light per watt compared to 18 lumens of light per watt for standard halogen bulbs.

A: HID lighting systems use a special quartz bulb that contains no filament and is filled with xenon gas and a small amount of mercury and other metal salts. Inside the bulb are two electrodes separated by a small gap (about 4 mm or 3/16th inch). When high voltage current is applied to the electrodes, it excites the gases inside the bulb and forms an electrical arc between the electrodes. The hot ionized gas produces a "plasma discharge" that generates an extremely intense, bluish-white light.

Like street lamps and fluorescent bulbs, HID headlamps require a high voltage ignition source to start. It typically takes up to 25,000 volts to start a xenon bulb, but only about 80 to 90 volts to keep it operating once the initial arc has formed. The normal 12 volts DC from the vehicle's electrical system is stepped up and controlled by an igniter module and inverter (ballast), which also converts the voltage to AC (alternating current) which is necessary to operate the HID headlamps.

The Digital Ballast adjusts the voltage and current frequency to operating requirements. The AC ballast frequency is usually in the 250 to 450 Hz range.

When HID headlamps are first turned on, the light appears more bluish but quickly brightens as the bulbs warm up. Because there is no brittle filament inside a xenon HID bulb to break or burn out, the headlamps typically last up to ten times longer than halogen headlamps.

A: Many people believe that the higher the color temperature the brighter the lamp. This is totally wrong. The color temperature is purely a scale to measure the color of the light output. It is a reference purely for color and could equally be called White, Green or Blue. The reality is the higher up the scale the lamps are the less bright they become. 5200K lamps are approx. 10% brighter (measured in Lumens, not degrees K) than the 7000K. If you want lighting performance the 6000K HID lamps are the best. In our opinion 7000K has the best and most attractive light output.

Degrees K = ONLY COLOR
Lumen= BRIGHT

It should be noted that halogen technology is not comparable to the Xenon discharge technology, fitted as original equipment to more and more of the world's finest cars.

Philips

A: Candela (cd)
The international unit (SI) of luminous intensity. The term has been in use since the early days of lighting when a standard candle of a fixed size and composition was used as a basis for evaluating the intensity of other light sources. This unit is used in measuring headlight output; basically the higher the number is, the brighter the light is.

Lumen (lm)
The international unit (SI) of luminous flux (quality of lights). For example, a dinner candle produces about 12 lumens and a standard 60-watt incandescent bulb produces 830 lumens. The higher the number is, the brighter the light is.

Kelvin (K)
A basic unit of thermodynamic temperature (color temperature) used to measure the whiteness of the light output. The higher the number is, the whiter the light is. When over 5000K the light begins to turn to blue as daylight.