Upgrade to LED Headlight Bulbs: Benefits and Considerations
In the world of vehicle lighting, LED headlight bulbs are a smart choice for drivers looking to enhance safety, visibility, and overall performance on the road. This is especially true for roads lacking in proper street light infrastructure, making reliance on your vehicle headlights that much more important.
Many vehicles today still come standard with traditional halogen or even high-intensity discharge (HID) headlights, due to their relatively simple designs and low manufacturing costs. This is however changing and upgrading to LED bulbs has never been easier.
Here’s why every driver should consider making the switch to LED headlight technology today and what you need to look out for when buying LED headlights for your vehicle. Let’s start with why you should be considering LED headlights in the first place!
1. Superior Brightness and Visibility
The biggest immediate advantage of LED headlight bulbs is their superior brightness. LEDs produce a sharper, more intense light than both halogen and HID bulbs. This results in a significant improvement in visibility, especially during nighttime driving or in poor weather conditions like rain or fog. LEDs illuminate the road more effectively, helping drivers see obstacles, road signs, and pedestrians from a greater distance.
The colour temperature of LED headlights is also much closer to natural daylight. While halogen bulbs typically emit a yellowish light and HIDs can range from blue to white, LEDs offer a crisp, bright white light that reduces eye strain during long drives at night. This makes driving not only safer but also more comfortable.
2. Energy Efficiency
LEDs are incredibly energy-efficient in relation to the amount of light they can produce as compared to older headlight technologies. For example, a good quality halogen bulb rated to 55w can produce around 1,600 lumens of light while a good quality HID bulb rated to 35w can produce around 3,200 lumens. High quality LED bulbs like the NAOEVO X50/ S3MAX rated to 45w produces 10,000 lumens of light.
This reduced power draw can be beneficial for your vehicle’s battery life and electrical system, especially in modern vehicles loaded with electronics and gadgets.
3. Longevity
Another big benefit of LED bulbs is their long lifespan. Halogen bulbs are typically rated between 500 to 1,000 hours and HIDs around 2,000 to 3,000 hours. Good quality LED bulbs however are rated anywhere from 15,000 to 50,000 hours.
This longevity not only saves time and money on replacement costs but also reduces the environmental impact. Fewer bulbs need to be manufactured, disposed of, or recycled, making LEDs a more eco-friendly choice.
4. Instant Brightness and Durability
When turned on LED headlights provide instant light at full brightness making them a far more effective choice for instances that require sudden or urgent light vs other technologies such as HID bulbs which require a few seconds to reach full brightness. Halogen bulbs do also light instantly however their poor lumen output make them far less effective.
Halogen and HID bulbs are manufactured using glass where LEDs are manufactured either using plastic or high-grade aluminium making them far more resistant to shock and vibration in rough road conditions or to human touch. Additionally, LED bulbs generate significantly less heat than their counterparts, which reduces the risk of damage to nearby components.
5. Cost Savings Over Time
Good quality LEDs do have a higher purchase price than halogen and HID bulbs however when weighed against their clear performance advantages they become a obvious choice in ensuring you have the most comfortable and safe driving experience possible.
So, by now we know why upgrading to LED headlight bulbs is a smart decision for any driver seeking improved safety, energy savings, and long-term value, it is time to look at the finer details of using LED headlights in Zimbabwe and what you should be looking for when upgrading to LED headlights.
So, are LED Headlight Bulbs legal and how do they differ from LED Bar or Spotlights?
The legislation covering headlamps for motor vehicles is provided for in section 18 of Statutory Instrument 129 of 2015. There is no reference to halogen or high-intensity discharge (DID) or LED bulbs, and nothing is stated that prohibits the use of LED bulbs.
(The same can be said regarding LED bar lights as there is nothing written in law. This would fall under SI 129/2015, however the SI is silent on the issue. For more information concerning the legality of these please refer to the following article https://bigsky.co.zw/vehicle-spot-lights-and-led-light-bars-in-zimbabwe/ )
A copy of SI 129/2015 can be downloaded here Big Sky Resources – Roads & Traffic
For now, it is important to understand that the key difference between these lights is quite simply that good quality LED headlights are designed to replicate the beam patterns of halogen and HID bulbs when installed correctly within the vehicle’s headlight housing making them safe for use on roads with oncoming traffic.
LED light bars and spots are designed to operate within their own housing as an external fitting and to throw light in a wide and distant pattern which is not safe for roads with oncoming traffic. Using these lights as your primary driving lights is extremely dangerous and an unnecessary risk given the performance of products such as the NAOEVO headlight bulbs.
But I have seen LED headlights that are too bright and dangerous?
Poor design or build quality is a common problem in LED headlight bulbs. There are many instances of designs that just don’t work well with a headlight fitting producing a poor beam pattern or that are bright but there is no difference between high beam and low beam or they simply just don’t last very long. As covered above, LED headlight bulbs need to be designed and manufactured to replicate as closely as possible the design of halogen bulbs to ensure they work correctly with a vehicle headlight fitting. When a LED headlight bulb is manufactured purely for price, the result is more often than not a poor beam pattern with lots of glare and a short lifespan. In many instances these lights don’t even provide much more light than your standard halogen or HID bulb but still cost a lot more.
Another big cause of LED headlight bulbs problems is incorrect installation. Halogen and HID bulbs throw light in a 360° pattern and then the headlight fitting projects that light in the correct way on the road. LED bulbs due to their design need to be installed and positioned correctly to ensure that they work the same way with the headlight fitting. If this is done incorrectly the beam pattern will be thrown out producing increased glare.
It is also worth noting that if your LEDs are installed and positioned correctly, but you still feel like they are not giving the correct beam pattern or you are getting an increased amount of flashing from oncoming traffic, then it would be worth getting the actual alignment of your headlights checked to make sure they are not set too high or low.
So how do I know what I am buying is any good and will it work with my vehicle?
NAOEVO LED Headlight Bulb Quick Tip Buying Guide
- Lumens – LED lumen outputs range anywhere from 4,800 to 32,000 lumens per set. We recommend looking for lights in the 10,000 to 21,600 lumen range as these provide more than enough illumination of the road ahead and allow you to stay below 100 watts in power draw.
- Wattage – LED headlight bulbs tend to have wattages that range from 80w to 260w per set. To avoid electrical problems, we recommend purchasing LED headlight bulbs with a wattage not lower than 80w and not higher than 180w per set to avoid possible electrical issues.
- False Branding – Avoid products labelled with unrealistically high wattages like 500w or 150,000 lumens. This is simply not achievable in a form factor as small as an LED headlight bulb and if it was possible, would come at great cost and be extremely dangerous to use on the roads.
- Brand – As with all products brands that have been around the longest tend to be the more reliable. NAOEVO has been manufacturing LED headlight bulbs for 18 years and is a product sold globally through more than 50 different countries and locations.
- Warranty and Local Back Up – Reliable brands will offer proper product warranties. We recommend avoiding any product that is not accompanied by at least a 1-Year warranty. It is also important to find out that if there is a warranty that there is a local distributor or agent that will be able to handle warranty claims. NAOEVO products are accompanied with between 1-2 Year warranties with local claim handling done in Zimbabwe through its exclusive local agent.
- Correct Fit – Ensure the bulb you are purchasing is the correct bulb for your vehicle and avoid at all costs claims by installers that they can make one type fit into another. LED bulbs are designed to match their halogen and HID replacements and therefore your halogen or HID bulb should be replaced only with the corresponding correct model LED bulb.
The best way to ensure your upgrade is hassle free is to purchase your LED bulbs from a reputable reseller or installer such as Big Sky Supplies.
Big Sky is an authorised reseller of NAOEVO and LightFox Automotive Lighting products and will provide you with all the necessary advice, service and support needed to keep you on the roads in the safest way possible.
Contributor: Denis Orphanides, Marketing Director, Muruwe (Pvt) Ltd – Exclusive Distributors of NAOEVO in Zimbabwe.
Fact checked and published by Sean Quinlan, CEO of Big Sky Supplies (Pvt) Ltd
Email: sean@bigsky.co.zw Cell/WhatsApp: +263 775 440 517
2 Responses
Good day all. With reference to the replacement of halogen with LED vehicle lights/bulbs. I live in Victoria Falls and I own a 1997 Prado and would like to replace my bulbs. Can I purchase them direct from you and then you forward them to me via Swift (will pay for delivery this end) or do yiu have an agent here that will sell and install them for me? Can you please tell us the price of them. Many thanks Finn Allan 0771 401 969.
Good day, Finn
Thanks for making contact. We will shortly be in contact on WhatsApp with a price and delivery.
Regards,
Sean Q.