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DOES LED LIGHTING GET HOT?
Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

This is a question we get a lot. The quick answer is yes, LED Lighting can get hot but not as hot as halogen lighting.

Compared to halogen lighting, LED lights generate much less heat; up to 90% less in some cases. There are situations though where LED lights can get hot to the touch, don’t be alarmed.

If you’re using high-power LED’s or have multiple LED’s close together, this will generate heat. The proper way to deal with this heat is to have what’s known as a metal heat sink attached to the electronics of the LED light to help extract heat away from the LED. Quality-built LED lights will have a well-engineered heat sink to help with this issue.

It is not uncommon for the metal heat sink of an LED light to get up to 70 degrees Celsius. While this is hot to the touch it is an OK temperature for the LED. Another thing to remember is that the heat is always contained within the metal part of the heat sink. There is very little heat emitted from the light ray coming from the LED, so you will feel no heat when standing directly underneath the LED light fixture.

On the other hand, a halogen light’s heat energy is emitted from the lamp itself and can be felt when standing under or near the halogen light source. As a result, you see more and more businesses converting from halogen to LED lighting for a more comfortable environment for both the employees and customers.