Thousands of people have Philips Hue bulbs in their homes, and the main draw is the vast array of colors you can set the light to.
While the company is famous for innovation, how famous are they for their safety?
Do Philips Hue bulbs get hot?
Philips Hue bulbs don’t get too hot. The bulb casing is cool to the touch, though the semiconductor can produce heat. This heat may transfer to the metal fixture on the bulb. Yet, the heat sink feature in LED bulbs helps absorb the heat, and these bulbs don’t produce infrared radiation heat.
Are you thinking about buying Philips Hue bulbs?
As with any product, it’s a good idea to look into how safe the bulb is.
This article will cover how Philips Hue bulbs work.
We’ll see if Philips Hue bulbs get hot and how they regulate temperature.
How Do Philips Hue Bulbs Work?
Philips Hue bulbs are a line of smart technology light bulbs. These lightbulbs and lamps are the first smart technology lights on the market.
The main feature of these bulbs is that you can control them with your smartphone.
Not only can you turn them on and off, but you can adjust the brightness level, warmth, and hue via your iPhone or Android device.
There are two options for controlling the lightbulbs.
You can either use Bluetooth or the bridge.
You can control up to ten lightbulbs through Bluetooth with your phone.
However, you always have to be within Bluetooth range to control the lights.
Another way to control Philips hue lights is with the bridge. The bridge can control up to 50 lights.
You can also be anywhere in the house and still be able to turn your lights on and off.
What the bridge does is creates a network. This network allows you to control the lights in a more advanced way.
You can create routines, set preferences, and more with the bridge.
If you want to try out the bridge, check out Philips 45847 Hue Smart Bridge. This option is compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, and Apple HomeKit.
The main purpose of Philips Hue lights is to let the owner change the color of the bulb. For instance, you can change your living room lights to pink or blue.
You can even choose from 16 million color options with Philips Hue lights.
Philips Hue Bulbs Are a Line of Smart LED Bulbs
Philips Hue bulbs are a line of white LED bulbs.
Each LED bulb has three different ranges: white, white ambiance, and white & color ambiance. And the temperature range of each bulb is 2700 K to 6500 K.
LED bulbs are much more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs, producing light that’s 90% more efficient than incandescent lights.
LED light bulbs also have high life expectancies, lasting anywhere from 15 to 20 years.
If you want to try a Philips Hue bulb out for yourself, check out Philips Hue White A21 High Lumen Smart Bulb.
You may also wonder: Do Philips Hue bulbs work in any lamp?
How Do LED Light Bulbs Regulate Temperature?
Many people know smart LED bulbs for their efficiency.
However, how well do they regulate temperature?
Let’s see!
Thermal management plays a crucial role in the life of an LED bulb. Without the current system in place, LED lights wouldn’t be as efficient and effective today.
Most LED lights have what’s called a heat sink, which absorbs any heat that the LED bulb produces.
After the sink absorbs the heat, it diffuses the heat into the surrounding area.
Due to these heat sinks, LED bulbs will not overheat or burn out.
While this system prevents the bulb from overheating, LEDs can still degrade over time.
An LED light bulb will never burn out, but it’ll eventually fade.
You can tell that the lightbulb is dying when it starts to fade a bit more every day.
The higher the temperature you run the light at, the more quickly the bulb will fade.
If you want to lengthen the lifespan of the bulb, try to run it under 6000 K.
Even so, the LED light will still regulate heat properly at high temperatures.
How Hot Do Smart LED Light Bulbs Get?
Just because LED lights regulate temperature well doesn’t mean the bulbs don’t get hot.
LED light bulbs are still a form of technology, and no piece of technology (so far, anyway) is 100% efficient.
The real question is, how hot do they get?
Read also: Can Merkury Smart Bulbs Be Used Outside? 3 Surprising Facts
LED Bulbs Release Significantly Less Heat Than Incandescent
Since electrical heat plays the primary role in lighting an incandescent light, the bulbs release 90% heat.
Incandescent lights rely on electricity to heat the filament to a high temperature.
Once the filament increases in temperature, it produces light.
However, LED bulbs work differently.
Instead of producing light from electrical heat, LEDs produce light from an electric current.
LEDs also have a semiconductor material inside of them. When the electric current passes through this material, it produces light.
This process emits much less heat than incandescent.
Led Bulbs Don’t Produce Heat From Infrared Radiation
The main reason why LEDs don’t produce as much heat is that they don’t produce infrared radiation heat.
Infrared radiation (IR) will heat the enclosure of an incandescent bulb. IR heat can also warm the surrounding area of the bulb.
Since LED bulbs don’t produce IR heat, they won’t be hot to the touch.
The Semiconductor of LEDs Can Produce Heat
While LEDs shouldn’t produce much heat at all, there’s still a possibility of heat.
Inside every LED light is a semiconductor, as mentioned above.
The process that produces light with the semiconductor isn’t 100% efficient. For this reason, the semiconductor can produce heat inside the bulb.
While the semiconductor won’t produce a lot of heat, it’s still something to keep in mind. This heat will have to transfer to some part of the lightbulb.
For safety reasons, it’s important to know where the heat will transfer.
We will get to that soon.
Philips Hue Bulbs Should Be Cool to the Touch
Since Philips Hue bulbs are LEDs, they should be cool to the touch.
The LED won’t heat the case of the bulb or the surrounding area.
Because of this, you can place the bulb just about anywhere! Philips Hue bulbs shouldn’t heat any items underneath the light.
The Metal Fixture Will Be Hot
You may be thinking that LED lights sound too good to be true.
However, as we discussed above, the semiconductor still produces heat.
This heat has to escape somewhere, right?
While the bulb itself shouldn’t be hot, the metal fixture will most likely be hot.
The heat that the semiconductor produces will transfer to the metal fixture on each bulb.
For this reason, you should never touch the metal fixture with your bare hands. Before you remove the light from the fixture, always wait for it to cool down.
Even so, the amount of heat that Philips Hue bulbs produce is minute.
Every lightbulb will produce heat. So far, Philips Hue bulbs are on the low end of the scale.
Check out: Philips Hue vs Ikea Tradfri: 5 Main Differences Compared
Conclusion
Philips Hue Bulbs are a line of LED smart white light bulbs.
Since Philips Hue bulbs don’t rely on electrical heat to generate light, the bulb should be cool to the touch.
LED bulbs do not produce infrared radiation heat. The lights won’t heat the casing of the bulb or the surrounding area.
However, the semiconductor of LED bulbs can still produce heat.
While this heat does not transfer to the bulb case, it transfers to the metal fixture. For this reason, try to avoid touching the metal part of the bulb.