I was visiting my friends at Dialight recently and saw this massive LED beacon in a hallway. It’s used for the tops of towers and masts, replacing the old lamps previously used.

Each “layer” has multiple red and white LED emitter arrays mounted flat on a copper heatsink, with a curved mirror reflecting the output. The LEDs have to be mounted flat for cooling purposes. Even though LEDs are far more efficient than incandescent lamps, they can’t radiate heat into space the way a filament can. All that residual heat builds up in the substrate, so it must be cooled.

The heatsinks are connected to thick copper heat pipes that run the length of the beacon and terminate in a huge heat sink on the top. This lamp will last about 10 years, reducing by an order of magnitude maintenance costs to the owner.

It isn’t even their latest version. They tell me that has only three tiers for the same output. Wow.