Blue Xenon Bulbs: A Guide to Upgrading your Headlight Bulbs

We have all been there, driving along the motorway at night when suddenly you see a vehicle approaching in your rear view mirror with intensely blue xenon headlights that seem to stand out from all the other cars around you.the HID stands for High Intensity Discharge and it means that these xenon bulbs operate on a different principle to normal halogen headlight bulbs. you may have seen a science experiment whereby a white light is split into to different colours by passing through a glass pyramid. The same principle occurs with HID xenon lights, normally the xenon bulbs emit a white light but as the light is refracted around the metallic reflector and glass lens it changes colour to give the impression of a blue xenon light.Instead of using a metal coil filament to create light the HID Xenon bulbs use a very high voltage spark to ignite the xenon gas inside the bulb to create a much more intense and powerful light.ECE regulations limit the maximum level of blue tint, so you will find that the amount of blue light emitted by street legal upgrade bulbs is very similar. Typical examples of street legal blue xenon bulbs include Osram Cool Blue, Philips Blue Vision and Ring Extreme Blue.