One of the great advantages of LED based lighting fittings is their efficiency. Efficient cooling solutions are needed even for this type of fittings because of the high power density. This paper presents a comparison between passive cooling, with a heat sink, and active cooling using a fan. This paper discusses how fans can be used to cool high power COBs(chip on board) without significantly increasing the size and complexity of the fitting and without significantly increasing consumption. Although the use of fans to cool LEDs is not new, in this paper, a comparison is made between the two methods in terms of temperature, forward voltage, total energy consumption as well as from the point of view of illuminance.