Technical details: https://www.sealite.com/lighthouse-led-lights/
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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Those are heat radiators (above and below)? Is this thing liquid cooled?
EDIT (just saw the link): So yeah those are heat sinks, but I'm not seeing if they are liquid cooled. Maybe not.
Yes. LEDs on that scale generate a lot of heat. Far less than a normal bulb on the same scale, but the problem is that an LED array is more compact and sensitive, so it retains heat much better, and is more sensitive to it.
Source: I've retrofitted a lot of old ships with more modern LED "bulbs" for their search light.
Kinda crazy to think about considering that LEDs are so efficient that they typically do not produce any significant heat at the use cases we're used to.
The part that emmits the light doesn't produce heat radiation like a incondecent bulb, but the circuits driving them do.
That's not exactly true. The LED itself also emits heat. In most cases, this is more than the driver.
/Flashlights enters the chat.
LED bulbs for vehicles also usually have at least a heat sink. Some of them even have a fan or other active cooling.
I've only seen it in enthusiast level flashlights lol.
I have a few that will hurt your hand after a bit, and most have a heat cutoff sensor.
The link should have all the details!
Looking at the datasheet and pictures I think the heatsink is just aluminum. Looks like an extrusion (which means it's the same shape over the full length) with a solid center that they machine down in the middle area to mount the LEDs. The large amount of material and good conduction of the aluminum will absorb and distribute the heat without needing water cooling or heat pipes.
These LEDs use up to 200W and the heatsink on here probably weighs more than 10x as much as a heatsink on a 500+W graphics card. Watercooling and heat pipes are necessary when you need to get a lot of heat out with a minimum amount of material, such as for cars and home computers. Costs more than a big block of aluminum but the you don't need to move that much wieght around. For a light like this, the extra weight and space it takes up doesn't matter.
Additionally, less moving parts should mean less failure cases that need to be addressed. As a light house lamp, less failures seems like a good thing!
Probably not, I think. The only mention of cooling I saw on the website was "Anodised heat sinks to maintain cool running of LEDs on steady burning duties."