Surface emissivity linmits the amount of heat transfer due to radiational cooling. With 1.0 being perfect (black body) emissivity anodizes aluminum is 0.85 and unfinished is 0.05.

Heat transfer due to radiation is proportional to the heat sink sink surface area exposed to its surroundings and to the temperature rise above ambient (in absolute °K) raised to the 4th power (T _sink-T_ambient)⁴. In natural convention on small heat sinks with open fins, and a high benefit from anodization by up to 45%.

Relatively large extrusions and those used at low temperature rise, as in many high power applications, will only gain up to 10% by the addition of an anodized surface.

With forced ventilation (using a fan) convective cooling is about 3 times higher than in natural convection. This changes the proportion of heat transfer due to radiation. An anodized finish will only add 4 -8% to the overall cooling effect in forced air. This percentage again, depends on fin spacing and heat sink dimentions. The color of the anodized finish makes little impact on emissivity since most radiational heat loss occurs at wavelengths higher than visible light.

As a thumb rule, if anodize is not required for aesthetic or corrosion protection, we suggest it only for small, open finned heat sinks in natural convection.