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Is there a way of getting a rough idea of the expected temperature in celsius of an electrical component say a resistor or a mosfet if it dissipates 1 watt at room temperature?
If you are using a heatsink, the thermal resistance for a common IRL5230 from junction to case is 3.1 deg C/watt. If the room is 20 C, the part will be at least 23.1 C. add 0.5 for the interface between the part and the heatsink and you're up to 23.6 C. You need the heatsink resistance to get a final number. Using 5 deg/watt for example, you'll end up at 28.6 C.
Without a heatsink, just flopping in the breeze, the resistance is 62 deg/watt. At 20 C, the part will be at 82 C.
There are a million heatsink calculators on the web. Most ask for a desired final junction temp and then they calculate the heatsink resistance you'll need.
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