The New LED Technology And Old Habits For Home Lighting Don't Mix

As new building regulations and construction requirements come on-stream, the use of non-incandescent lighting will increase and wiring practices will adapt to the new materials.

Meanwhile, there remains a need to supply an alternative solution for the user that is stuck with the centre-room pendant lampholder fitting and simply wants a replacement for the 100W light bulb that has just blown, a direct replacement for which is no longer available in a house for which re-wiring is inconceivable.

There is a market for both areas.

For inconceivable re-wiring we can look at wireless power .

The thing is that many still promote the old school lighting fixtures and design. It;s true that there are a number of buildings that have spot lighting - which can be fitted with LEDs.

good point on that one

One word (or TLA). CFL. They come in different colours, last a long time, use less power (run cooler) and they aren't much more expensive than incandescents these days. I've even seen dimmable ones in the grocery store.

Save the LEDs for spot lighting (I've seen 10 degree spots although they're harder to find than floods) and night lights (extremely low consumption and if you're handy you can make some dandy stair lights). They are ideal for those applications.

This is my take and correct me if I am wrong. The cost of copper is skyrocketing and it seems there is no end in sight. The cost of energy is also skyrocketing. If a new home is being constructed would it not be a better idea to use low voltage wiring with transformers located near the inlet electric panel. These transformers could feed the individual circuits required. Now when you buy an LED replacement light, you buy just the light and not the light and transformer. Led lights could then be very cheap without the transformer attached. There would be a great savings on wiring costs, not labor, and on energy costs for lighting. I also appreciate nikolay's point of having lighting installed to optimize the use of LEDs. Are there any houses now being constructed with good LED technology incorporated into it, even prototype? Or is still too risky to install low voltage wiring on emerging construction techniques?

...or if you have batteries connected to a windmill and/or solar panels, you could hook your LEDs straight to the batteries. You still might need a PSU/current regulator but probably more efficient than going off the mains. I used a 12V system with 12V LED fixtures but a lot of windmill and solar systems are 24 or 48V.

I don't see how you will effect any great savings. You will need to have heavier wire to handle the higher current to keep the voltage drop to a minimum.

I haven't seen too many 6 volt vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, or refrigerators, so houses will have to be wired for 2 systems.

Would it be possible to superimpose low voltage DC onto the existing AC wiring?

Like I said, retrofitting existing homes is simply not going to happen due to costs.

Add to that, just try to push a new wiring standard onto the home industry. The cost of getting a coalition together, hammering out a standard that generates enough votes amongst all interested parties, and then selling that to the consumers is a no-go idea.

The easy way to do this is to put that same effort into reducing existing LED costs and boosting its performance.

Amazingly, there is something called the free market that will do the rest.

Let's keep it to lighting, LED lighting

Yes I think we need the 120/230 volt circuits to operate motors, fans etc as found in most houses. Lighting with LEDs require less wattage to give the same apparent luminosity (possible wrong term). From the web, 7 watt LED will equate to a 60 or 70 watt incandescent. It therefore stands to reason to expect lower energy consumption and less copper.

watts/volts = amps

7 watts/24 volts=0.29 amp

7 watts/12 volts=0.58 amp

So depending on how many LED lights you place in series or the voltage of the transformer, it appears to me the wiring requirements will be much smaller to get the same return. Strings of LED lights are often used on Christmas trees and often have over 500 on one circuit of 115 volt with plug in transformers.

This is the result of manufacturers building bulbs from efficient blue LEDs. To create a "white" light, a phosphor coating is applied that emits other colours in the visible spectrum. When these mix - like shining light through two prisms - they produce a white light. Crucially, however, there are "gaps" in the spectrum, and it is these missing chunks that cause the harsh effect.

http://www.sencart.com

Some systems use red, green and blue LEDs with number of each matched to intensity but those are still pretty expensive.

If you're rich (or a business) you can get RGB systems that are independently adjustable so you can light your space any colour you want, even dynamically.

More like the way fluorescent bulbs work than prisms, I'd say. The spectrum charts I've seen don't seem to have gaps so much as a significant peak at the colour of the 'pump' LED. I think eventually they will either start using more phosphor or add a filter matching the pump colour to even it out.

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Hi to all

Led lighting is the future , had been new developments in the energetic forum renewal energy Joule ringer thread 10 220 v ac 5 watt led bulbsunder 400 ma 12 v dc from solar powered batteries

i had them installed and 6 pm to 6 am daily with 75 % brightness 50 watts total using only a 5 watt solar panel directly connected to SLA battery 12 v 7 AH

Hope this help

totoalas

I apologize for being pedantic, but can you punctuate that? I can't follow anything you said, but suspect it is of very positive use for those of us looking for ways to efficiently apply LEDs to our lighting needs.