LED VS HID

Snoopyslr said:

Ya, so overratted.

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julianzh said:

Wow nice output. Just like my HIDs.

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julianzh said:

Wow nice output. Just like my HIDs.

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Matthyahuw said:

don't need to if you go 35W

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NoHonor937 said:

If you go 35w pnp then just LEDs anyways. Hids are only useful in a retro kit. Pnp value LEDS will be higher

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dallasjhawk said:

nope, leds are terrible in our projector housings, hids work way better as has been discussed and proven throughout this 48 page thread.

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NoHonor937 said:

If he’s looking for PNP He probably doesn’t care about performance. And my LEDs are twice as good as the stock halogens they came with. Light up everything and they scare animals away from the road which I consider to be the best part.

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Snoopyslr said:

Ya, so overratted.

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daPyr0x said:

Short version: In a "retrofit to my halogen headlights" sense, LED is more "plug and play", HID casts more light. LEDs can be had for cheaper, but could also include undesirable features like fans running whenever the headlights are on.

Long version: LEDs are the same type of lights used in most modern electronics and can be found everywhere from street lamps to dashboard indicators in your car. They work by passing electricity across two different materials, the junction of which emits light as the electricity passes through. LEDs have a front and a back, are great at emitting light in one direction (the 'front'), but since all light comes from this same spot, they are not great at sides and back. This is not great for a drop-in application because the halogen bulbs they are replacing are good at emitting light in all directions and the reflectors they're installed in are designed to take advantage of this quality. Most modern drop-in LED headlight assemblies are made up of multiple LEDs aimed in different directions to combat this difference and make LEDs perform closer to what the original halogen would in terms of the spread of light. LEDs are not great at handling heat, their output drops off significantly if they get overheated, so drop-in LED assemblies often have large heatsinks and fans attached to them to keep them operating in an acceptable range. Installing an LED is simple, many are a straight drop-in effectively the same as replacing a halogen bulb. Some LEDs will have a "box" on the wire somewhere that should be mounted somewhere to support the weight while driving.

HIDs by contrast are less commonly found in other applications, but similar technology lamps can be found in overhead industrial & outdoor lighting. They work by creating a spark between two electrodes and maintaining it, a little bit like having a tiny piece of lightning in a bottle. As you can imagine, this means HIDs can be extremely bright, and since lightning emits light in all directions, they don't have the same downside of LEDs. The location where the light is generated is still different in an HID bulb than it is a halogen bulb, so HID bulbs in halogen housings will still perform worse than halogen bulbs in the same housings in terms of the even spread, and appropriate cut-off, of light. They are extremely bright, though. Installing HIDs is easy, but not as easy as installing LEDs above. All HIDs require a separate driver that needs to be mounted somewhere in the car. The car harness is connected to the driver, the driver then connects to the LEDs. Occasionally there is an additional component inline called an igniter that helps the bulbs start up, this typically does not need to be mounted. Some people (myself included) also install a relay kit to power the HIDs. This is because when starting up, the driver can consume large amounts of power, which can in some occasions draw more power than the OEM circuit is capable of delivering, leading to a blown fuse. By connecting the drivers through a relay kit, the load on the vehicle harness is minimal - just enough to power the relay - and the load of the HIDs is covered by the aftermarket wiring you install. I'm making this sound more complicated than it is, it is a very easy install to do, but it is not as simple as LEDs. Automotive HIDs have also been around longer, so the technology is more mature.

If you're willing to replace the housing instead of just dropping in replacements to the existing housing, the differences between LED and HID drops off. Housings can be designed to effectively use any of the three main lighting technologies (LED, HID, Halogen) and are found in numerous OEM applications. I have not seen many good LED projectors or full housing retrofits for the 10th gen Civic myself, but HID options do exist. This process is considerably more involved, requiring the removal and disassembly of the OEM headlight housing. This will get you the best output, though, bar none.

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Snoopyslr said:

Ya, so overratted.

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Nighthawk said:

What LED bulbs are you using?

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Nighthawk said:

What LED bulbs are you using?

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dallasjhawk said:

really? lets see that your output shot then? Im an HID user and I can promise my morimoto kit doesnt look that good.

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