LED headlights have been popular in recent years due to their efficiency, energy savings, performance, and sustainability for a long time compared to incandescent bulbs, which do not offer benefits such as those of LED incandescent bulbs.
Another main advantage of an LED light fixture is the components that can control the heat so that the fixture always stays cool. But for this article, we will be looking at fans compared to the fanless LED headlights.
| Fan LED Headlight | Fanless LED Headlight | |
| Brightness | Has a fairly consistent brightness | It has higher brightness than a Fan LED |
| Maintenance | Do not require extra space | Does not require extra maintenance |
| Power | A fan may consume more power | Does not need a power source for operation |
| Lifespan | Not as compared to fan | It has a long lifespan compared to Fan |
| Look | It has a simple and stable structure | It has higher brightness than Fan LED |
| Cooling | It has a slightly complicated structure compared to Fan LED | It does not involve any external sources for cooling either. The cooling is not fast compared to Fan LED |
| Operation | It can produce a lot of noise | It does not come with external cooling components The cooling is faster compared to Fanless LED |
To learn more about how the fan and fanless compare to each other.
About Fan And Fanless LED Headlights
Failure of these components can cause the LED light fixture to lose its performance and life. There are two types of components that can be used to cool the LED luminaire: a passive or fanless cooling mechanism and an active or fan-powered cooling mechanism, both of which play a major role in cooling the LED luminaire.
Both passive and active cooling are designed for heat dissipation and can affect brightness. The fanless LED usually uses a heat sink and can generate little power with relatively low brightness.
In this case, the fan LED is structured to provide brightness and energy compared to passive LED light.
In this article, we will see the advantages and disadvantages of fan LED light, the advantages, and disadvantages of fanless, why we need cool light, similarities between fan and fanless, and finally we will determine which is better between them.
Fanless LED Light Or Passive Cooling
The main advantage of fanless cooling is that the heat sink is small and easy to install, and it has low cost and better energy efficiency. This can be a better choice for a buyer because it is easy to manage and has a low cost with better efficiency.
The use of heat sinks provides a high level of heat dissipation, which uses the natural wind to moderate the heat by achieving high efficiency.
Fan LED Light Or Active Cooling
Active cooling systems rely on external sources to dissipate heat. This inactive cooling method with the rate of fluid flow has increased during convection, this increases the rate at which heat is removed. It is one of the ways to remove heat by using fans to achieve maximum operating heat.
Fan LED light are integrated heat dissipation design, The advantage of this is that the structure is simple and stable, while the disadvantage of this is that the operating cost is relatively higher than passive cooling and it cannot resist the heat of too high power, because this type of design is based on the heat transfer of aluminum, copper substrate thermal design with the fan.
The reason is that the thermal conductivity of copper is about 50% higher than that of aluminum, so copper material can achieve better heat transfer and dissipation than a heat sink that uses the evaporation and condensation cycles of the liquid to transfer heat.
The thermal conductivity is 300 times higher than copper which allows the output of LED to work completely smoothly and safely, but the biggest disadvantage is that the cost of material and production is relatively high.
Let us examine the different types of active cooling:
Most of the bright LED headlights are equipped with a fan to dissipate the heat, but we have different types of cooling fans with different powers. The active cooling is categorized into three forms: Double ball bearing fans, turbo fans, and hydraulic fans.
- Hydraulic Fan
This is a cooling technology with a unique spiral groove engraved in the bearing. As the bearing rotates, lubricating oil is evenly distributed to support the shaft and reduce friction and noise.
Advantages: The hydraulic blower has a lifespan of 40,000 hours and is mainly used to cool LED headlight bulbs because it is quiet and has a long service life.
Disadvantages: The lubricating oil evaporates after some time, which causes wear and tear and reduces the service life.
2. Dual Ball Bearing Fan
Advantages: Dual ball bearing fan has over 50,000 hours lifetime and good anti-aging performance with high speed and large airflow.
Disadvantages: The dual ball bearing fans are expensive to manufacture and make a lot of noise.
It is a cooling technology in which two balls are stored in the form of rolling friction. There are small, tiny steel balls in the bearing around the axis. When the fan rotates, the steel balls also rotate.
3. Turbofan:
The turbofan is driven by a motor that rotates the impeller so that the gas flow can be spun to the impeller. The turbofan’s movements create a pressure that allows the new gas to be drawn into the impeller and then continue to discharge from the fan.
Advantages: The turbofan can achieve high cooling efficiency by creating a fast airflow in a small space.
Disadvantages: It requires a higher design and accuracy process than the ordinary fan. When dust attaches to the fan blades, the speed will be affected and the fan blades will become unbalanced, resulting in a loud noise.
Pros Of Fan LED Spotlight
- During cooling, the rate of liquid flow increases, which can increase the rate at which heat can be removed.
- The LED fan does not require large space and fits very well in the headlight, even if you choose a slim fan for your car LED cooling.
- It does not use external cooling components to power the light, which means that the light works quickly to remove the heat from the LED light.
- Since it has an integrated heat dissipation design, its structure is simple and stable.
- With the external sources for this fan, which is installed inside the assembly of headlights, heat removal from the LED lights can be performed very quickly and easily.
Cons Of The Fan LED Headlight
- A fan can produce so much noise during the process of cooling the LED headlight.
- If an LED headlight is not well fixed, there is a possibility that it will collect dust from outside, which can affect the LED headlight, affecting the efficiency and performance.
- Since external sources such as a fan are used for cooling, there is a possibility that more power will be consumed and the dust will affect the light, so maintenance will also increase.
- Fan LED light cannot resist the heat of high power because this kind of design is based on the heat transfer of aluminum.
Fanless LED Headlights
Fanless does not use external sources to cool the LED headlight. The good thing about LED light is that it uses a heat sink and can control heat dissipation, this heat dissipation can affect the brightness of LED lights.
Pros Of Fanless LED Spotlight
- Fanless LED light has a long service life of about 70,000 hours. It has an advanced heat dissipation structure, which makes it cost-effective and more efficient, not need so much power, and has high performance.
- Fanless makes no noise like fan LED light which can help the LED light to its best performance and increase efficiency.
- Fanless does not attract dust like a fan, which means it is not easily damaged and its maintenance cost is relatively low compared with active cooling mechanisms.
- Fanless spotlight LED does not need power sources for operation.
- It is waterproof and does not use a fan, so it cannot be damaged by water even if it is exposed to it.
- It has high brightness like Cree XHP-70 with high lumen of 6600lm.
Cons Of The Fanless LED Headlamp
- Since the LED headlamp is fanless and cooled by a heat sink, it must be monitored from time to time or risk being damaged.
- Passive cooling mechanisms are not as fast as active cooling mechanisms because they do not use a fan for cooling, but natural factors such as wind, which can be bad, if the wind force is low, they do not cool properly and can cause the LED light to become hot and damaged.
How Does Heat Affect The Performance Of LED?
If the temperature fluctuates and becomes high, and if the heat is high because the heat of the fan or fanless LED fixture cannot be regulated, there is a possibility that the LED light performance will be affected and lead to a shortening of the service life because the heat has a great impact on the LED light.
For LED light, it is very important to cool the heat because LED light cannot withstand the heat like other bulbs.
There Are Several Reasons To Cool The Heat For LED Light
The reasons are related to the radiant power of LED light. Normally, the radiant power varies depending on the junction temperature.
1. If the temperature range of LED light is between 10 and 20 degrees and exceeds this range, it will cause heat stress and reduce the efficiency, performance, and lifespan of LED light, because the heat may affect various components of the LED light.
2. When the temperature of the LED luminaire exceeds its range, it will affect the color rendering index of the luminaire, for example, the LED may be yellow or white light, so when the temperature exceeds the range, the brightness will increase for some time and eventually burn out.
3 High-temperature rises may reduce the light output, which means the performance will be affected. If the temperature is too high, the passive or active cooling mechanism may fail to control the temperature, resulting in a reduction in light output.
If properly managed, the heat in the vehicle will bring several benefits, and if effectively dissipated, will reduce the overall cost of LED systems, and avoid regular replacement.
Which Solution Is Better For Your Car?
After the progress of technology, car manufacturers have decided to install the LED light in cars because of their efficiency, energy-saving, and lifespan compared to traditional halogen lights.
LED lights have become more popular, and many people have replaced their halogen with LED headlights for a better solution.
Due to the problems caused by the temperature LED light manufacturers have introduced fans and fanless LED light, which can help to cool the light and reduce the risk of burnout and shortening life.
However, there is much debate about the choice between passive cooling mechanisms (fanless LED light) and active cooling mechanisms (fanless LED light).
It can be difficult to decide between the two if you have no idea of their similarities and differences, as we explained above.
Aside from the differences between passive and active cooling mechanisms, or fanless LED fixtures and fanless LED fixtures, there are also similarities between these two:
Both play a major role in reducing and eliminating heat, either through the use of fans or natural elements such as wind.
Their main goal is to increase the performance of the LED luminaire by increasing efficiency, brightness, and lifetime.
FAQs
Do LED Headlights Use Less Power?
It is true that LED headlights consume less power compared to halogen and incandescent bulbs. In addition, LED headlights convert 80% of energy into light, wasting less energy, while halogen headlights can only convert 20% of energy into light. LED Headlights are more energy efficient.
How Long Does The Fanless LED Headlight Bulb Last?
The LED fanless bulbs have a longer life than the fan LED headlight bulbs with a fan. It can reach up to 50,000 hours. The LED fanless bulbs have a high heat dissipation structure, which makes them cost-effective, need less power, and have high performance.
Can LED Headlight Bulbs Melt The Housing?
During the working process, they generate great heat. If LED bulbs are equipped with high-quality cooling components, the heat can be dissipated faster, and your headlight housing will not be damaged.
Do LED Headlights Need A Fan?
It is always advisable to have a fan for heat dissipation for LED high-power headlight bulbs. When the bulbs work, they generate heat, and the fan helps circulate the air faster.
Which is better: a fan or a fanless LED headlight bulb?
It is difficult to decide which model is better, because all of them have advantages and disadvantages, as we have seen:
- The fanless LED headlight bulbs are cheaper and have better energy efficiency than the LED headlight bulbs with fan
- The Fanless LED headlight is noiseless and provides high-quality light output.
- Fan LED headlight bulbs do not use external cooling components to power the light, which means it can transfer heat from the LED light.
Fan LED headlights produce brighter and stronger light than fanless LED
Based on the advantages and disadvantages of both fan LED light and fanless LED light, we can say that fanless has more advantages compared to an LED light, we can say that more than 75% of fanless is better than fan led light, but you should know although it is better than fan LED light does not mean it cannot damage the LED light.