Producing Heat from IR LED Possible?

Thread Starter

Michael Cibene

Joined May 30, 2015
4
I'm looking to turn a flashlight with 1 LED bulb (that is 5mm x 8.5mm) into a small heating source. So I need to replace the small LED bulb for an IR one I think?

Any suggestions for a light that will produce heat?

Thanks!
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,280
A standard IR LED will produce very little heat.
If you want an intense narrow beam of heat, then you could use an IR laser diode.
But note such an IR beam is dangerous and requires IR safety googles to avoid eye damage from the direct or reflected beam.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
I'm looking to turn a flashlight with 1 LED bulb (that is 5mm x 8.5mm) into a small heating source. So I need to replace the small LED bulb for an IR one I think?

Any suggestions for a light that will produce heat?

Thanks!
At what range? If you are talking about within a foot or so then you might be better off with more traditional technologies. I remember a flashlight that put out enough light/heat to start paper on fire at a distance of a foot or so.
 

Externet

Joined Nov 29, 2005
2,201
First, your existent flashlight would become a simpler 'small heating source' if you put an incandescent bulb on it. But 'small' is still meaningless.

Or, what you may want is a magnifying lens in front of a decent light source...
----> http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/magnifier/index.html
----> http://survivalworld.com/fire/convex-lens.html#.VXMJWzdq3WU
The maximum theoretical temperature that can be focused to a point will not be greater than the temperature of the light source bulb filament.

Or, the way I kill spiders in my ceiling corners. A violet laser pen. Leaves them smokey and crunchy toasty still hanging...
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
A standard IR LED will produce very little heat.
If you want an intense narrow beam of heat, then you could use an IR laser diode.
But note such an IR beam is dangerous and requires IR safety googles to avoid eye damage from the direct or reflected beam.
IR lasers are much more dangerous than visible light lasers because you can't tell when its burning your retina.
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
At what range? If you are talking about within a foot or so then you might be better off with more traditional technologies. I remember a flashlight that put out enough light/heat to start paper on fire at a distance of a foot or so.
Sometimes I use headlamp bulbs as dummy loads - but you do have to be careful not to set things on fire with them!

If you reduce the filament voltage, less of the power gets converted to visible light. Therefore a greater proportion of the consumed energy is radiated as heat.
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
First, your existent flashlight would become a simpler 'small heating source' if you put an incandescent bulb on it. But 'small' is still meaningless.

Or, what you may want is a magnifying lens in front of a decent light source...
----> http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/magnifier/index.html
----> http://survivalworld.com/fire/convex-lens.html#.VXMJWzdq3WU
The maximum theoretical temperature that can be focused to a point will not be greater than the temperature of the light source bulb filament.

Or, the way I kill spiders in my ceiling corners. A violet laser pen. Leaves them smokey and crunchy toasty still hanging...
The spiders eat the things I'd much less rather have around, so unless they get big enough to take a bite out of me I let them get on with it.

When they exhaust the food supply of other things, they eat each other - so its mostly self limiting.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
The spiders eat the things I'd much less rather have around, so unless they get big enough to take a bite out of me I let them get on with it.

When they exhaust the food supply of other things, they eat each other - so its mostly self limiting.
We have lots of spiders where we are and I just leave them be -- except for the black widows, which have kill-on-sight warrants out on them.
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
We have lots of spiders where we are and I just leave them be -- except for the black widows, which have kill-on-sight warrants out on them.
AFAIK: Australia has some of the most deadly spiders, and I vaguely remember something about laws there against killing spiders - they have real serious plagues of flies, and anything that eats them is protected.

They should get with the programme and import dung beetles.

So far only one spider got big enough to attack me while I slept, it actually stood its ground and even reared up as I trapped it in a small cardboard box.
It went out the window, by a couple of days later it had found its way back up to my floor, but the weather was turning colder and it could only move slowly - someone stomped it before it could get back into my flat.
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
A standard IR LED will produce very little heat.
If you want an intense narrow beam of heat, then you could use an IR laser diode.
But note such an IR beam is dangerous and requires IR safety googles to avoid eye damage from the direct or reflected beam.
Somewhere there's a Youtube clip of someone setting off match heads with the laser salvaged from a scrap DVD drive.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Somewhere there's a Youtube clip of someone setting off match heads with the laser salvaged from a scrap DVD drive.
I can't rule it out, but it would seem a bit surprising given that the lasers don't damage the DVD (even if they are coated with black ink). Lot's of YouTube stuff that is faked. Really annoying.
 

Externet

Joined Nov 29, 2005
2,201
Just stop the DVD from spinning and a recording/burning laser will damage a spot.

Spiders also have the right to make a living, but they do not recycle/cleanup their webs. Then, not in my house...:rolleyes:

And the original poster still does not show to tell his heating plans...
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
Just stop the DVD from spinning and a recording/burning laser will damage a spot.

Spiders also have the right to make a living, but they do not recycle/cleanup their webs. Then, not in my house...:rolleyes:
At least some species of spider eat the web material and recycle it as the next web - but they won't if its collected dust, and especially not cigarette tar.

Its fairly common in nature, many venomous critters won't attack for the hell of it - they have a limited supply of venom and need it to kill prey.

Spiders don't magic web material out of thin air, they have to consume the raw materials before they start work.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Its fairly common in nature, many venomous critters won't attack for the hell of it - they have a limited supply of venom and need it to kill prey.
And there's also another factor at play for most (not all) species -- namely that they don't engage in confrontations if there's no percentage in it. For instance, mountain lions will usually leave large dogs alone. Not because they perceive a large dog as having much of a chance, but because they seem to realize that the dog could do some damage in the process. For a mountain lion, even a minor injury has the potential to be life threatening, so there's not enough upside to justify the meager benefits. Now, if large dogs were taking the same game that the mountain lions depend on and if that game was in sufficiently short supply, that would probably change over time. You see that in Africa and other places where one species of predator will go out of their way to kill another species because they are in competition for the same resources. There the risk (very non-zero risk) of injury is worth the reward.
 
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