Can a Dimmer Switch Save Electricity? - Energy saving tips for LED Lighting.
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
- Millions of homes across the UK have installed LED downlights, but how many are fitted with a dimmer switch? In this video, we explore ways to save electricity by adjusting your lights' brightness levels.
To demonstrate, we are using the Ultimum range of downlights from Robus paired with a dimmer, which allows the high and low-end light levels to be set.
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Featured - Robus LED dimmer
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00:00 Saving Energy by dimming LEDs
00:33 The Robus LED Dimmer
01:00 What happens to the power when we dim
02:19 Light Levels in typical applications
02:57 The Robus Ultimum range
03:29 Setting high-end dimmer level
03:48 Reduce light levels by 40%
04:10 Improving reliability
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Saving electricity not just by dimming, but also by living in a small OSB box (with insulation around it)? Genius idea to be honest.
I bet they sleep in the same bed like Morecambe and Wise?
@@BennySuttonMusic I can't unsee that now!
Brilliant Videos as always, thanks for the useful content! 😄
really good to know as well i thought about getting some dimmable led like switches but never really had the idea if it did save power or life of the bulb. i learned more in 2 vids after i seen this channel in my recommended list in short of time.
I don't have dimmer switches, but about 11 years ago I had the Danlers PIR sensor switches fitted in 7 of my rooms. No doubt they've given me a "hands off" experience with lighting, but naively I thought they'd also save my electricity bill by keeping the lights on as briefly as required.
Fast forward to last week when I got my Klein Tools thermal camera. I bought it for reasons of draught proofing and finding weak spots in my house insulation but sure enough I found so much more "what is that warm spot on the wall?". Sure enough it wasn't my programmable thermostat, it was the PIR sensor light switch next to it.
So I thought "I've got 14 of these sensors inside and outside my house how much of a hole are these burning in my pocket". I removed one of the sensors and wired it up to my power meter. 1 Watt! That's 1 Watt 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the last 11 years (minus the odd power cut). I'm astonished! I could have 3x Philips 860lumen light bulbs permanently switched on instead of these things and it would save me money!
I emailed Danlers, and they replied that 1 Watt is not only normal for their switches 11 years ago, but it's the same spec today!
So, can you do a review of PIR sensor switches? Both wall and ceiling mounted switches, reviewing attributes including their "inactive state"?
Wow - Thanks for the heads up - I’ve got a load of BEG ones in my house. This is certainly worth investigation.
Enlightenment
I think that one of the problems is that there’s little proper science or design that goes into domestic lighting most of the time….. it’s a wet finger in the wind kinda thing…. Throw lots of lights at it “just to make sure” …. Overspec bulbs to make sure it’s not too dark. When I was designing an uplighter for my own roof light, it turns out I was well OTT. I always planned it to have a dimmer on a smart device, which has proved quite illuminating (😂). It’s minimum setting is around 5%…. Which results in much more than 1/20 of the light….. I don’t have a meter, but the power/perceived illumination relationship is not linear.
I use a Shelly device to dim. It gives lots of info, especially the power it’s using….. 100% is 130W…. Most of the time I use it as mood lighting and it rarely goes above 50%.
The obvious conclusion from that is if I’d had more experience/design tools/guidance, I could have saved a chunk of money….. maybe 12v instead of 24v…… cheaper strip…… much cheaper power supply…. Good dimmable ones are not cheap…. Etc etc
Good resources and How Too’s are what’s needed. They may well be out there….. I just haven’t found them yet!
These tips are great for people whom already have dimmable LEDs or are retro fitting to a halogen fitting. But, what do you do if you have a house full of non-dimmable LED spot lights giving in excess of 700 lumens? Well the answer is actually simple, but many won't consider it.
Bypass some of the light fittings so they are no longer connected, but allow the ring main to continue. This is even easier with the Wago 221's. Keep the fitting in the hole incase you want it in the future or change your mind on which lights you want on (thinking here that you may have disconnected one that is above a kitchen counter top, but realised you need it there, for example.)
There will be many folk that get all the light fittings changed in their homes due to the increased cost of electricity, but the ROI takes too long that's its not worth doing
I have to say I like the idea of saying energy, and those products seems like a great idea. But I can’t see the benefits I a domestic installation like social housing, we all know the rooms in such house aren’t that big , living room 12ftx7ft if you’re lucky, bedrooms a good three or so feet smaller. As they are all designed to a standard size.
But who am I to argue i’am not allowed to have an opinion I’m just a humble spark who’s opinion means nothing. Great video guy’s as always 👍👍👍
Do the dimmers pull current? I have old lutron telume dimmers and a lot of halogen lights that they drive as they provide a much nicer light, but use LED accent lighting for usual lighting, I noticed that the dimmer circuit pulls current when off as they allow a small amount of current to drive the dimmer.
The old ones certainly did. I was always told you will save more by putting in smaller wattage bulbs than dimming a higher wattage lamp . Can’t do that with most LEDs as they are a fixed wattage
That's probably because you've got remote control capability on the dimmer.
So even when the LED lights are off, the remote control sensor electronics is consuming a small amount of power, do you can use the remote to turn the lights back on.
Dimming LEDs, they tend to use pulse width modulation as a way to control the brightness, and if this method is employed, then reducing the brightness of the LEDs will save power, compared to at full brightness.
If the LEDs use a resistive dimmer and just change the value of a steady state DC current to the LEDs, then turning down the brightness does not save power, all you're doing is pushing the power dissipation from the LEDs to the resistive component. Total power dissipation remains the same.
The only way you're really going to know is to put a power meter on to the controller/power unit that drives the LEDs.
What about smart bulbs that you can dim with software?
It all comes down to the way the LED is driven.
Most dimmers work by using pulse width modulation. And if you lower the brightness using this method, the LED bulb does use less power. However, if you're talking about software control then there is a computer somewhere and you need to think about whether installing such a system will increase your power consumption.
Get your self a little plug in power meter and measure before and after.
Great video and great idea but I'm sorry to say I'm starting to see other possibilities
On the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational
Statler and Waldorf?
So the answer is YES.
Code for this ....
The ultimate way to save energy is not by dimming the lights but by moving to live in a cave.
Reduced power consumption by dimming except when they are smart bulbs which have an always on WiFi connection even when switched off!
The devil is in the details... "it depends on the dimmer!" This one clearly does, but LED uses insanely little power to begin with... what you demonstrated would save me about $0.30(US). (How much did that dimmer cost?)
(Note: the dirt cheap rheostats put in my house 40 years ago save almost nothing, and they drive 60+W _per bulb_ - today, 5-15W LED replacements)
In the UK, a regular branded white trailing edge dimmer is about £20, a regular switch £3
Regular LED gu10 about £2, dimmable £4
Cba working out the math myself, but unlikely to save you much in a domestic setting
:Lights, power saving versus safety. 4 led downlights consuming 20 watts of energy, not long ago one bulb would consume 60 to 100 watts. I think you are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. If you can afford to install down lights and dimmers running them would not be a problem.
@@dancoulson6579 What a very strange response.
Sorry but you have picked on the lowest energy device in the home.if you save 50% for a whole year you may just have saved enough to boil your kettle once 🤣🤣. I still find it amazing that the standard light bulb was 100w just a few years ago, and a 500w halogen for outside flood 😮.
Still got customers wanting me to replace 500w lamps!
I tell them now, I'll only replace lamp for lamp if you give me a lamp, otherwise I'm changing it.
Lamp costs me the same as a 10w pir, and filaments break if left in van from vibration
Where is Tim nice but dimm 😄
we wouldn't have to deal with this high energy prices if UK and EU didn't shot themselves in the knee because of Ukraine war
The thieving tories failed to protect the average citizen with price caps windfall tax or nationalisation of energy companies. And regarding Ukraine. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Put on some extra undies mate and don't vote tory in the next GE.
Just think if we had our own gas we could have cheep energy to power our homes and power stations.
Oh hang on I almost forgot ,we do but choose to practically give it away.
Prices were going up before the Ukraine war, though this has worsened it.
@@deang5622 no they weren't remember oil trading in 2020 and 2021? oil prices soared with US sanctions on US and biden administration cutting money to oil pipelines. it further worsened when UK and EU joined with US in imposing sanctions on Russia. you won't see oil prices like west is seeing in China or India. why? because they never joined in imposing sanctions on Russia or Iran