The performance and lighting characteristics of the LED depend on cooling condition because the power LED generates lots of heat. In this paper, the effect of the generated heat from power LED module on lighting characteristics and performance is measured and evaluated. For experiments, the transient temperature of a power LED module with cooling condition is measured. In addition, the temperature and lighting characteristics of the LED module are measured during the steady state. As a result, the cooling condition is less effective on the lighting characteristics of the LED module at rated current but the cooling condition extremely affects those of the LED module over the rated current. Because high temperature of the power LED module causes the low phosphor conversion, luminance efficiency becomes low and color temperature becomes high. When power LED module are driven over the rated condition, higher temperature is directly related to lighting characteristics and performance of the LED module rather than higher current.