Our family lives in Indiana. In February, a cold front came through and dropped a lot of snow. Not only did it mean that I had to shovel my driveway, but it also meant that for a short time our house was dark at night. There was so much snow that our fixtures were buried.
One of the questions I am asked from time to time is, “Since LED lights aren’t hot will they still melt snow?” Over time, the LED fixtures melted our snow and with some warmer temperatures, we were back to having our home shining brightly once again.
Before LED became the predominant choice for landscape lighting, quartz halogen was used. If you happen to touch an older quartz halogen bulb that is shining bright, you will soon discover, often painfully, that it generates lots of heat. A byproduct of electricity passing through the filaments in the bulb is heat. For a long time, it seemed that that heat was a necessary part of having a bright light.
LED lights are different. There are no filaments that glow when electricity surges through. LED lamps are made not of filaments, but drivers and diodes. They not only get brighter but also operate cooler.
In the past, when we had quartz halogen lights, it was a rare event to have a dark house because the heat of the quartz halogen lights quickly melted the snow. In colder regions with plenty of winter weather, some homeowners have been reluctant to switch from older quartz halogen to the more efficient LED lights because they don’t want to risk having a dark house.
It is interesting to see the effects that the heat from fixtures make on the snow. The lights melt the snow on top and on the sides creating a tube effect. Regardless of the weather, we have a brightly illuminated home.
The LED lights have done the same thing but not to the same extent as the older and hotter lights we once had. The LED lights do generate heat and will melt snow – just not as fast.
In the first image, you can see the top of the LED fixture through the small tube it created showing that LED lights will melt snow. In the second image, there is a LED fixture under that pile of snow.
If you have LED fixtures and don’t have too much snow they will do fine. However, if you get dumped on with lots of snow, your house may be dark for a little bit until the fixture can melt the show or it is cleared away.
On those cold and snowy days, don’t worry about having a dark house. The LED lights will get to work and melt snow.
