Do led lights to get hot? This is a question that a lot of people ask when they want to switch from traditional light sources. Well LED lights give off some heat, but much less than traditional incandescent light and energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Table of Contents
- How much heat does a 100-watt led light bulb produce?
- Which light bulb produces the least heat?
- Conclusion.
LED lights for the home, do not emit ultraviolet and infrared light. Infra-red light does not add to the brightness of the light, it makes the bulb hotter and contributes to the wastage of much-needed energy.
Yes, led lights get hot to the extent that you can touch them without being burnt. You can touch LED lights and not be burnt, because LED light does not produce light in the same way as incandescent light bulbs which produce light using a filament.
In traditional light bulbs, the higher the filament temperature, the hotter the bulb becomes and the brighter the bulb becomes.
How much heat does a 100-watt led light bulb produce?
For me to answer this question effectively, I should ask another follow-up question, what produces heat in light bulbs?
You know that in traditional light bulbs, you produce light by heating a filament. A filament is made out of high-resistance material.
Resistance is the opposition to the flow of electric current in an electric circuit. When current is passing through the filament, heat is produced. As the current increases, the filament starts to glow from red to white.
In short, an electric current flows through the filament. Heat and light are produced. As you may know light is a spectrum of different types of light.
The light that is seen by the naked eye is known as visible light and it is responsible for illuminating the rooms. In traditional light bulbs, both visible and infrared light is produced.
Infrared light is partly responsible for the heat that is produced in traditional light bulbs.
How is light produced in an led light?
In an LED light bulb, light is produced using a different method altogether. Light is produced using electron flow. The term LED is a short way for a light-emitting diode.
A diode is a semiconducting material. When electrons flow in a light-emitting diode, photons are produced.
In turn, these photons produce light. In contrast to light produced using a filament. The light produced using LED, produces one type of light in the spectrum. The visible light.
Because the other type of light like infrared and ultraviolet are not present in LED light bulbs, the amount of heat produced by Led lights is reduced drastically.
How much heat does a 100W led bulb produce?
Watt is a measure of the amount of electric energy consumed by the light bulb.
A 100W led bulb will consume 100W of electric energy from the electric supply. In practice, a 100W led light bulb is too bright to be used for indoor lighting.
This is because a 100W led light is suitable for outdoor applications, like illuminating stadiums. For indoor purposes, you should look for an led light that is equivalent to a 100W traditional light bulb.
A 15W led light bulb is equivalent to a 100W traditional light bulb. All in all a 100W led light bulb, will produce less heat compared to a 100W traditional light bulb.LED lights, get hot but not as hot as either halogen lamps or incandescent light bulbs.
You can do a simple experiment by taking two light bulbs. One is an LED light bulb and the other is a traditional incandescent light bulb. All the bulbs are rated at 100W.
Switch on the two bulbs at the same time, and touch each bulb with your finger. You will find out that the traditional bulb will be hotter than the traditional bulb.
Which light bulb produces the least heat?
Well, the most commonly used light bulbs are:
- Halogen lamps.
- Fluorescent lamps.
- Traditional light bulbs(incandescent bulbs).
- Mercury vapour and sodium vapour lamps
- LED light bulbs
Of the five listed light bulbs, LED light bulbs, produce the least heat. This does not mean that LED light bulbs do not produce heat. They do produce heat but it is minimal.
LED light bulbs are equipped with LED drivers, therefore, these are fitted with heat sinks. The heat sinks remove heat as it is being produced by the led driver circuit.
Conclusion.
Do led lights get hot? The answer is a big yes. What can you do to reduce the heat produced by light bulbs? As a consumer or user of led lights, there is nothing you can do. This parameter can be controlled in a factory at the manufacturing stage.
What is your experience using LED light bulbs? Do you have any questions? Feel free to contribute in the comments section below.
