Light Bulbs - Wattage vs Kelvin Temperature

[roccit_53 at hotmail.com (C Boyko)]

Kelvin is used in photography and is referred to as "colour temperature". It 
essentially can be thought of as white hot vs red hot, with white being 
hotter, ie, the higher Kelvin rating. So a day with an overcast sky has a 
"Kelvin temperature" of about 7000K (because the light is quite blue), vs a 
40 Watt general service lightbulb with a Kelvin temperature of 2650K. I'd 
guess the stock weak pathetic headlights to be somewhere in the 
yellow-orange range...maybe around a 200K/5Watts....

So if you want really blue/white light, a higher Kelvin rating is what you 
want. Want the cops to leave you alone? I'd go for the lower Kelvin rating. 
Wattage would be as per normal bulbs I'd say, with higher wattage drawing 
more power and being brighter. They are also hotter, not a concern so much 
for us with our glass lenses, but on cars like my bug with the expensive 
plastic housings and lenses, I'm using stock wattage. I don't need to melt 
anything.

Also, I'm of the OPINION (not verified by any research, mind you) that since 
stock wattage bulbs will sometimes heat up and cook our old wiring/switches 
with their not so perfact (read high resistance) connections, that going 
above that on stock wiring is asking for trouble. I'm firmly in the "relay 
them" camp, if for no other reason than you replace a lot of the bad crusty 
connections with fresh stuff. And the relays give you more options to beef 
up the wattage without frying the dash switch. That switch isn't getting any 
younger.

Got relays? Pick your brand/colour/blinding capabilites, and go for it. I'm 
sporting quite the mish mash myself. A relayed mish mash, mind you.
Cathy


>From: ian@bluemoon.hplx.net
>To: Don Walter <dswalterwi@earthlink.net>
>CC: Scirocco-L@scirocco.org
>Subject: Re: Light Bulbs - Wattage vs Kelvin Temperature
>Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 17:39:50 -0400 (EDT)
>
>On Sat, 24 Apr 2004, Don Walter wrote:
>
> > Okay I am very confused about light bulbs.  I don't understand all
> > these statistics. There are Xenon, Halogen, HID. There is 55/65 watts,
> > 80/100 watts, 100/120watts.  Some even claim to put out 80/120 while
> > only consuming 55/65watts.  Now there is Kelvin temperature 4000K,
> > 5200K and 6000K.  Euro Dezign claims to have the brightest 6000K
> > Krypton Xenon bulbs but they only are 55/65 watts.  They only cost
> > $25.00 for the pair.  How do tese compare to the expensi ve PIAA's?
> > I heard good reports from Sylvania's new XtremeWhite.  Ahhhhh who am I
> > to believe?  Help me !
>
>The pat answer is: nobody.  I prefer Sylvania's Cool Blue for color
>temperature, with no perceived loss of output compared to their other real
>high-output halogen (XtraVision, I think it's called.)  Relaying is
>reported to help, as are e-code upgrades.
>
>'spensive PIAA, EuroDezigns, etc. lights are pretty much a sham.  The
>latter company can't even spell "designs", so..
>
>Scirocco headlights seem to be pretty much OK.  Especially compared to
>period Audis, which often have utterly terrible aerodynamic DOT lenses.
>
>Daniel Stern Lighting has a series of good articles on this topic.
>
>http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/superwhite/superwhite.html
>
>
>ian Butler / ian@bluemoon.hplx.net
>'88 Audi 5000S quattro
>'88 VW Scirocco 16v
>'87 VW Vanagon GL syncro (for sale)
>'77 Mercury Marquis (for sale)
>
>
>
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>Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
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