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Originally Posted by swamp2

Sure but you are still missing the point. It is simply NOT the bulb temperature that really matters.

Fact is, if the bulb generates more heat by itself, the temperature inside the sealed headlamp enclosure will be greater - always - irrespective of what other heat sources are present. That's physics.

Compare 100 watts to 450000 watts!! Now even thought the vast majority of that 450000 or so watts of engine power wasted on heat is dissipated by the cars cooling system there is a considerable amount of truly wasted heat that contributes to the 200 deg underhood temperatures. This is probably thousands of watts. Either way it dwarfs the 100 or so from the bulbs.

Not sure your math checks out - engine heat waste may be thousands of watts, but it's over a much larger area. 100W of the bulb is concentrated over a much smaller surface (tens of times smaller in fact).

Although the headlights are in a good location to get some cooling air they are also partly enclosed in the underhood environment as well. They WILL absorb underhood energy and that will be a major heat source contributing to their is situ temperature.

If you want to talk about the benefits of a cooler bulb you must take measurements with a thermocouple, inside the headlight assembly, after full engine warm up, under steady state (or some other defined) operating conditions. If you think the insides of the headlights will show anywhere near as drastic of a temperature differences as the Angel Eye BULBS themselves, in isolation, you are sorely mistaken.

Hence again the whole bulb temperature thing is mostly a red herring.

So your argument is that the bulb contributes a minuscule amount of heat inside its own sealed and plastic insulated enclosure?

Forgive me for not really believing all this, since you aren't providing a shred of hard evidence to support your point. You're criticizing EAS's method, but yours is much poorer.

I personally think exactly the opposite - inside the headlamps, the bulbs are the major heat contributors, not the engine. As I've said, this is my speculation - and I don't mind at all if I'm proven wrong.

For full disclosure, I'm running GP Thunders and doubt will ever pay $100-300 for a fancy light bulb, so I don't really care if the HID makes more heat than the LED's or vice-versa.