High-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps have been widely used as a useful supplemental light source to emit sufficient photosynthetically active radiation and provide a radiant heat, which contribute the heat requirement in greenhouses. The objective of this study to analyze the thermal characteristics of HPS lamp and thermal behavior in supplemented greenhouse, and evaluate the performance of a horizontal leaf temperature of sweet pepper plants using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. We simulated horizontal leaf temperature on upper canopy according to three growth stage scenarios, which represented 1.0, 1.6, and 2.2 plant height, respectively. We also measured vertical leaf and air temperature accompanied by heat generation of HPS lamps. There was large leaf to air temperature differential due to non-uniformity in temperature. In our numerical calculation, thermal energy of HPS lamps contributed of 50.1% the total heat requirement on Dec. 2022. The CFD model was validated by comparing measured and simulated data at the same operating condition. Mean absolute error and root mean square error were below 0.5, which means the CFD simulation values were highly accurate. Our result about vertical leaf and air temperature can be used in decision making for efficient thermal energy management and crop growth.