Date:         Wed, 15 Jan 97 22:41:14 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@www.mwc.edu>
Subject:      halogen wisdom please

Hello all,
OK, I'm looking for a definitive answer here, from someone who has
experience or who knows pretty well what will happen:

I have a set of Hella 500 driving lights mounted on my van.  These
lights came with the H3 12v/55W halogen bulbs (these bulbs are a pain in
the ass compared to the other H bulbs).  Anyway, I was wondering if when
these burn out I could safely replace the 55W H3 bulbs with 100W H3
bulbs or if this is a really bad idea.

The bulbs are physically identical, so it would fit with no problems but
I'm wondering if the heat put off by the higher wattage bulb would be a
problem.  The reflector/bulb assembly fits into a plastic housing.  At
Tom's holiday party I unleashed this idea on John Anderson and he
expressed concern that the 100W bulb might melt the plastic housing or
something similarly bad.  Looking in the RMMW Cabriolet catalog (they
have some Hella products in there -- plus I've got the Hella catalog and
I'm currently lusting after some stuff :) ), the 55W bulb draws 4.2 amps
while the 100W bulb draws 7.6 amps.  I'm wondering what kind of a
difference in heat output that translates to.  

What do you folks think?  Can it be done?  I don't feel like ruining a
set of very nice lights by doing something stupid, so I want to know if
it's stupid before I try it :)

BTW, in this Hella catalog, they have a set of the new HID
(high-intensity discharge) lights for sale.  Sorry, no prices mentioned
in the catalog, but check this info out:

For those who don't know, the HID are the new lights that are even
better at simulating daylight than halogen.  They use a pressurized
capsule containing xenon, sodium, and mercury gasses.  It says that the
HID lights are 2.5 times as intense as the halogen lights (I can hear
Joel drooling now :) ).  You've probably seen new Mercedes or Lincoln
Mark VIIIs driving around with the HID headlights (they're the ones that
look blue).  It needs 28,000 volts to strike the arc in the capsule.
The capsule is only 35W but the driving lamp version has a 3000 foot
range and the pencil-beam version has a 4200 foot range (Yes Joel there
are some pencil-beams still being made by Hella, some regular halogens
too).  They even have a safety mechanism that cuts power flow in an
accident (presumably due to the high temperatures).  Basically, they
look VERY COOL and are probably astronomically expensive :) .  

Anyway, don't forget the original question :)  .  Can I safely put 100W
H3 bulbs in a light made for 55W H3 bulbs?

Thanks all,
Sean