Lightbulb
 

I just installed 2 Hella lights on my roof, I only had 1 hella light bulb though.

I went to radio shack and the brightest was 100watt bulb.
I put it in and the hella bulb is 200000000x brighter...

Where can I get a bright light like that one?
Its like a spotlight.


And its the kind of lightbulb that comes stock in the xj fog lights.

bump

The walmart here in TN has Hella and Hella FF lights. Not sure if yours does but worth it to check out

The bulbs in my fog lights are just halogen H3s...if that's what you're talking about, I found them at Autozone and they should be at any autoparts store.

Hella add-on lighting typically uses an H3 bulb, which can be had anywhere.

As you've probably already guessed, quality varies heavily by manufacturer.

I order mine from Susquehanna Motorsports (www.rallylights.com). He's a full-line Hella dealer, and you'll get good stuff from him for a fair price (the only Hella dealer I can find who does a better job is International Truck...)

If you're using them for driving lights, you can use up to 100W, and I recommend the Super White bulbs.

If you're using them as fog lamps, remount them below your line of vision (there's a reason fog lamps are usually mounted on the front bumber.) Switch to a Yellow Star bulb, and don't go any higher than 55W.

Driving lamps can be aimed straight foward (if mounted low - if they're roof-mounted, aim them downwards 3-5*,) and fog lamps should be mounted aimed downwards 5-7*. Believe me, it makes a difference!

the bulbs come in various degrees of brightness, (candle power, and rated in "K's". Instead of the wattage they draw. ie. 1000k, 3000k, 5000k, and so on) I my self put H4 5000k, Hyper white, Bulbs into my factory fog lights. (A cleaner super white light, with out the bluish tint. That you see in new cars projection headlights.) This way they match, my H4 5000k, Hyper white, Headlamps. They throw a awful lot a light out, when low beams & fogs are on together. A lot more than just my high beams alone. I would look through e-bay for H4 replacement bulbs. And buy them in pairs. JMO!

Candlepower is a rating of how bright the lamp is (and it's not an efficient system of measurement. However, if you do want to measure the light intensity properly, you need to measure the lamp, reflector, and lense as an assembly - and then you measure in lumens.) Candlepower is now obsolescent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlepower) and is essentially replaced by the candela (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candela)

Lumens are measured using an "integrating sphere," and is a weighted sum (wavelengths are given different correction values according to the response of the human eye toward them) measure of the total output of a lamp assembly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_flux

What's the difference between the two? Think of a lamp's (or lamp assembly's) output as a pile of sand on the table. The measurement in candela would be the highest single grain of sand in the pile - spot intensity. The measurement in lumens would be the sum total of sand in the pile - total output.

The rating given for "*K" is actually colour temperature, and it goes back to ideal blackbody radiation. Here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature. It's a good starting point, you can dig deeper if you're interested. Colour temperature is the measure of the composition of the light, and can either describe the colour of the light proper (when it has a "cast" to it, as in a "bluish cast" or a "reddish cast,") or it can describe the sum spectrum of a white light ("white" light is simply the presence of all colours of light. However, it's entirely possible to have an unequal mix of colours, which will mean that the "white" light could affect various colours differently. Thus, colour temperature.)

Colour temperature != luminous flux. Luminous flux (lumens) != light intensity (candela).

Input wattage (W) has little to nothing to do with colour temperature (*K.) However, input wattage has a significant bearing upon luminous flux and light intensity.

5-90; you are very correct. And I apologize if I mis-informed people. End results are I'm incredibly happy with my head & fog lamps now. Let's say the difference is like night, and day! ( and yes, the pun was intended )

No worries. I just like to make sure all of us - including me! - are working from good information.

Besides, with all of the time I spent on Debate in high school, it's not been enough for me to just say, "You're wrong." Gotta prove the answer, and recall that "a mistake is an opportunity for education." Making a mistake is not the sin - not learning from the mistake is nearly unforgivable!