Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) > Do LED Lights Give Off Heat?

Yes. LED lights do produce heat but it is considerably less than Xenon and Halogen car lights. Automotive LED lights generate such a small amount of heat that they still remain cool to touch. The heat is not enough to cause a burn.

The easiest way to explain this ‘heat’ that is released would be to explain how light is produced in a semiconductor diode. A basic explanation would be that electricity is introduced to the unit as ‘high energy.’ It then passes through from one material to another, but because of the variation in the two materials, it must release all that high energy, and transition to low energy, prior to being absorbed by the second. It is in the process of dispelling energy that two things happen. First, a very small amount of heat is given off, and secondly, the energy is released from electrons in the form of photons (light particles).