Aluminium Heat Sink for LED Strip

Aluminium Heat Sink for LED Strip

This is an aluminium heat sink to suit flexible LED strip.

⚠ It is a component on its own. There is no LED strip in it and no driver - it is one of the parts that holds, joins or terminates a strip run you already have.

What a heat sink does

An aluminium heat sink gives LED strip somewhere to send its heat. That sounds like a detail and it is the single biggest factor in how long a strip run holds its brightness.

LEDs do not wear out from being switched on and off; they degrade from running hot. A strip stuck directly to plasterboard, timber or joinery has no path for that heat, so it sits in it. The visible result arrives slowly - output drops, the colour drifts, and it does both unevenly, so a run ends up brighter at the cool end than at the warm one.

Aluminium conducts that heat away along its length and sheds it into the air. The strip runs cooler, holds its output, and lasts closer to the life it was rated for.

When it is worth it

It matters most on higher-wattage strip, on long runs left on for hours at a time, and anywhere the strip sits in a confined or already warm space - inside sealed joinery, in a shallow cove, or against a ceiling that traps warm air.

It matters least on low-wattage decorative runs used briefly. Even then it does no harm, and it still gives the run a straight line to sit on.

Installing it

Fix the heat sink to the surface first, then lay the strip onto it with full contact along its back. Air gaps defeat the purpose entirely: heat crosses a solid contact and stalls at a void, so a strip laid unevenly gets much less benefit than its length suggests.

Keep it clear of insulation. A heat sink buried in insulation has nowhere to shed what it has collected, which leaves it doing very little.

Frequently asked questions

Download Datasheet (PDF)