If you are a specifier trying to sort through “good” LED fixtures from “junk” LED fixtures, many of the design + engineering trade-offs in the product are often obfuscated.  Heatsink design is one of those areas.  Sometimes “good” LED fixtures require big-ass heatsinks; sometimes they have no apparent heatsink.  Why? There was a smartly written post explaining the need to balance thermal conductivity of materials versus the convection rate of the overall heatsink design.  In sum, a highly thermally-conductivity material (i.e. aluminum) does not necessarily help if the overall convection rate of the heatsink does not match the  flow rate of … Continue reading thermal conductivity vs. convection rates