Ok, this is going to sound non sequitur but, I returned 4 failed LED lightbulbs to Lowes yesterday, and the person in the lighting section stated something that made me pause (and I'm an electrical engineer).
He stated that a 4 watt LED bulb, when plugged into a 110v outlet, still draws substantially more than 4 watts, and therefore, the LED bulbs do not actually save as much energy as would be expected. He stated that some are rewiring their homes so that they do not push as much voltage to LED sockets. -- Given I believed that going from 60 watt incandescent bulbs to 4 watt LED bulbs saved so much electricity, I felt justified in using many more lights than I would have in the past. So, have I actually been using more than I would have if I had stayed with the older bulbs, has anyone actually tested the amount of power drawn by a 4 watt LED?
I can see your research helping to understand 4 areas:
1.) Power Generation
2.) Power Transmission
3.) Power distribution in the home (including storage, integration with local panels, and perhaps new wiring to accomodate lower power devices)
4.) Power Use Efficiency at the home / car
So - maybe this question is not completely non sequitur, as it relates to #3.
I used an Emporia Smart Plug on a Philips LED. Emporia has several products; the plug can be used to automate appliances or to monitor energy. The LED is rated as 8.5 watts, 800 lumens. The Smart Plug reported 8.53 watts consumption.
The smart plugs are quite cheap. I got a set though I actually have only used it occasionally to measure / monitor, not for actual automation. It would be useful for automation when going on a trip. The plugs connect back to the Emporia servers and provide logging.
I also have an Emporia Vue Utility Monitor. That is a very useful device. It talks to the smart meter through bluetooth (it needs to be provisioned by the Utility but they do it for free) and it provides real-time consumption plus several historical graphs. Much better than what I get from the Green Button in the PG&E website. I need to write an updated post on it
Ok, this is going to sound non sequitur but, I returned 4 failed LED lightbulbs to Lowes yesterday, and the person in the lighting section stated something that made me pause (and I'm an electrical engineer).
He stated that a 4 watt LED bulb, when plugged into a 110v outlet, still draws substantially more than 4 watts, and therefore, the LED bulbs do not actually save as much energy as would be expected. He stated that some are rewiring their homes so that they do not push as much voltage to LED sockets. -- Given I believed that going from 60 watt incandescent bulbs to 4 watt LED bulbs saved so much electricity, I felt justified in using many more lights than I would have in the past. So, have I actually been using more than I would have if I had stayed with the older bulbs, has anyone actually tested the amount of power drawn by a 4 watt LED?
I can see your research helping to understand 4 areas:
1.) Power Generation
2.) Power Transmission
3.) Power distribution in the home (including storage, integration with local panels, and perhaps new wiring to accomodate lower power devices)
4.) Power Use Efficiency at the home / car
So - maybe this question is not completely non sequitur, as it relates to #3.
I used an Emporia Smart Plug on a Philips LED. Emporia has several products; the plug can be used to automate appliances or to monitor energy. The LED is rated as 8.5 watts, 800 lumens. The Smart Plug reported 8.53 watts consumption.
The smart plugs are quite cheap. I got a set though I actually have only used it occasionally to measure / monitor, not for actual automation. It would be useful for automation when going on a trip. The plugs connect back to the Emporia servers and provide logging.
I also have an Emporia Vue Utility Monitor. That is a very useful device. It talks to the smart meter through bluetooth (it needs to be provisioned by the Utility but they do it for free) and it provides real-time consumption plus several historical graphs. Much better than what I get from the Green Button in the PG&E website. I need to write an updated post on it