While most LED bulbs have passive heatsinks, some Philips MR-16 LEDs have a small cooling fan inside to help cool down the LEDs and the driver. While a small cooling fan makes the bulb more prone to failure, it also allows these to be installed in recessed fixtures that might not have much ventilation for a passive heatsink.
My friend Marco said he's installed some factory-LED recessed cans that are open on top with a cooling fan so the ones designed for LED have heatsinks on the module and an open top with a fan. they're not listed for contact with insulation.
The only thing with the cooling fans is that they add a little to the energy consumption but in a tight fitting space like that it's for the best because that little half watt extra or whatever will prolong the life of your $75 LED recessed can. The LED module is removable but I don't know what kind of base the ones he installed had.
I've seen ones intended for incandescent-to-LED retrofit and they come with a medium base socket with leads and an orange fluorescent connector plug and the LED module plugs into it and the module is held in by a clip or something. Saw them at Lowe's one time.
I have all Mastercolors and Belgium LEDs par 38 in recessed cans, and they work great He has 120 recessed cans and slowly the 90w halogens are coming out.
What wattage are they? I bet it makes the rooms cooler too since halogens put out a ton of heat. With those halogen par lamps you can literally feel a beam of heat under them.
Belgium LEDs are 11w 1,000lm MasterColors are 23w and over 1,500lm. The rooms don't feel cooler but the home is open concept so the hole home mite feel cooler. lots of times the par lamps are over 20ft up so the heat does not hit you but the library has that problem big time the heat is so bad in the summer we leave them off.
@Mike, interesting that the factory recessed LED cans have fans too, I thought only the retrofits did as they needed a fan for ventilation in a more or less closed off fixture. I've seen one of those screw in retrofit trims before, the one I saw was one piece (so basically a trim that screws in the socket). That one didn't have a heatsink though.
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The only thing with the cooling fans is that they add a little to the energy consumption but in a tight fitting space like that it's for the best because that little half watt extra or whatever will prolong the life of your $75 LED recessed can. The LED module is removable but I don't know what kind of base the ones he installed had.
I've seen ones intended for incandescent-to-LED retrofit and they come with a medium base socket with leads and an orange fluorescent connector plug and the LED module plugs into it and the module is held in by a clip or something. Saw them at Lowe's one time.