I found these cute little TO-220 stick-on heat sinks on eBay for about $0.25 a piece, and decided to take some performance measurements vs. a bare TO-220.
TL;DR: for a 40C rise, a bare TO-220 can dissipate about a 1/2 watt, while the heat-sinked TO-220 can do a little better than 3/4 watt.
That's a pretty narrow use-case, but they certainly are cheap! 😀 Might find a use in headphone amps or other small supply regulators.
Full details: Cheap TO-220 heat sink performance measurements * GitHub
TL;DR: for a 40C rise, a bare TO-220 can dissipate about a 1/2 watt, while the heat-sinked TO-220 can do a little better than 3/4 watt.
That's a pretty narrow use-case, but they certainly are cheap! 😀 Might find a use in headphone amps or other small supply regulators.
Full details: Cheap TO-220 heat sink performance measurements * GitHub
