Rear fog lamps use high-intensity bulbs filled with a special gas such as halogen. The light they produce is more intense than that of ordinary headlights.
Front-facing fog lights and fog lamps are a type of automotive headlight that is designed to emit light in a bar-shaped beam. The beam is typically designed to have a sharp cutoff on top, and the actual lights are usually installed low and aimed toward the ground at a sharp angle.
The position and orientation of fog lights can be compared and contrasted with high beam and low beam headlights to reveal exactly how different these seemingly similar devices are. High beam and low beam headlights are both aimed at a relatively shallow angle, which allows them to illuminate the road surface a great distance in front of a vehicle. In contrast, the sharp angle used by fog lights means that they only illuminate the ground immediately in front of a vehicle.
Some fog lights produce selective yellow light, and there is a relatively widespread misconception that all fog lights have yellow bulbs, yellow lenses, or both. In fact, selective yellow has actually been used for both fog lights and regular main beam headlights at various points throughout the history of the automobile. So while some fog lights do produce selective yellow light, many produce white light.
It’s actually the bar-shaped beam of light, and the way that the beam is aimed, that makes a fog lamp a fog lamp, rather than the color.
Since fog lights are aimed low, and many of them use selective yellow light, they are relatively useless when the driving conditions are good. That means there is no reason to ever turn on your fog lights unless you experience a poor visibility situation when driving.
Some situations where fog lights can be useful include poor visibility conditions caused by rain, fog, snow, or even an excessive amount of dust in the air. If find yourself driving in a condition of poor visibility, and your high beams reflect back at you, causing a glare or dazzle effect, you should avoid using your high beams. If your low beams also create excessive glare, to the point where all you can see is snow, fog, rain, or dust, then a set of good fog lamps may allow you to actually see the road.
The catch is that fog lights, unlike main beam headlights, only illuminate the ground immediately in front of your vehicle. This makes it incredibly dangerous to drive at any kind of a high rate of speed when using only your fog lights. In fact, it’s actually illegal in some areas to drive with just your fog lights on, even if your main beam headlights are producing glare.
In most cases where fog lights are actually necessary, their primary function should be to allow you to proceed slowly, and carefully, until you reach either your destination or another location where you can wait out the bad weather.
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