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My on average power consumption is 100 watts! If I turn on ALL the lights in my apartment I will be consuming 324 watts.
Motivation: saving money on electricity, being energy efficient and doing it on a budget
Scientific data: When a light-emitting diode is forward biased (switched on), electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons.
This makes perfect sense to me, but if you're a bit confused read this wikipedia page on Light Emitting Diods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode.
LEDs use even less power then Compact fluorescent lamps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp) and in the recent years the price of these lights have gone done enough to be affordable.
Disadvantages to using LEDs:
1. They do not emit as much light as regular or CFL light bulbs.
2. If they do, they cost way to much.
3. To achieve normal lighting conditions you must use many LEDs
4. If you use DC power, you must use very thick and costly wiring to
reduce resistance at low voltages
I looked online and in various stores for LED lights. The most affordable ones seemed to be flood lights with a GU5.3 plug. However, it would take very many of these "bulbs" to produce sufficient light and lots of wiring. But since these worked with 220 Vac (European standard) I would save on wiring.
My choice LED light bulb consists of 18 small LEDs put together in a hexagonal matrix with a reflator background with a small individual power supply inside each lamp. Thus, it uses regular voltage and each light reduces 220 Vac to 12 Vdc the diods need (pic included).
I bought 10 of these lights in a hardware store and started experimenting with how much light these would give out. It turned out that I was happy with 4 lights per 10 square feet (1 sq meter).
I also had a white string of LED Christmas lights from IKEA, which I wanted to use in the bathroom.
Once I had the lights, I could start planning my lighting with LEDs.
Motivation: saving money on electricity, being energy efficient and doing it on a budget
Scientific data: When a light-emitting diode is forward biased (switched on), electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons.
This makes perfect sense to me, but if you're a bit confused read this wikipedia page on Light Emitting Diods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode.
LEDs use even less power then Compact fluorescent lamps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp) and in the recent years the price of these lights have gone done enough to be affordable.
Disadvantages to using LEDs:
1. They do not emit as much light as regular or CFL light bulbs.
2. If they do, they cost way to much.
3. To achieve normal lighting conditions you must use many LEDs
4. If you use DC power, you must use very thick and costly wiring to
reduce resistance at low voltages
I looked online and in various stores for LED lights. The most affordable ones seemed to be flood lights with a GU5.3 plug. However, it would take very many of these "bulbs" to produce sufficient light and lots of wiring. But since these worked with 220 Vac (European standard) I would save on wiring.
My choice LED light bulb consists of 18 small LEDs put together in a hexagonal matrix with a reflator background with a small individual power supply inside each lamp. Thus, it uses regular voltage and each light reduces 220 Vac to 12 Vdc the diods need (pic included).
I bought 10 of these lights in a hardware store and started experimenting with how much light these would give out. It turned out that I was happy with 4 lights per 10 square feet (1 sq meter).
I also had a white string of LED Christmas lights from IKEA, which I wanted to use in the bathroom.
Once I had the lights, I could start planning my lighting with LEDs.
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My apartment is 516 square feet (48 sq. meters - 8 x 6 meters) 26 x 20 feet (I'm including a photo with detailed dimensions, although in Russian and metric). One studio/room and a bathroom.
I figured to grid the ceiling in 1.6 x 1.6 in (50 x 50 cm) squares and put the LEDs in intersections. I needed 135 LEDs.
I looked online and in various stores. I found the best deal in Moscow, Russia to be at LED-LAZAR http://led.promzone.ru/service.htm – a manufactured of LEDs in small town of Serpukhov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpukhov), outside of Moscow.
For the LED - G5.3- 220 whites I paid 70 Russian Rubles which is roughly $2.50
I also bought 20 of the improved/higher luminosity LED-G5.3-6UW-C at 80 Russian Rubles per light bulb, which is roughly $2.75
I bought these at wholesale prices since I was getting over 100 light bulbs.
I paid $275 for 130 of the LED - G5.3- 220 and $55 for the improved LED-G5.3-6UW-C. I spent roughly $330.00 for all my lights.
I then had to buy the fixtures to install the light bulbs in a fake ceiling made out of drywall. These ran 29 Russian Rubles per fixture, which is about $1.00 I spent another $135.00 for the fixtures to install the LED lights into.
Now I had to buy the wires. Each LED uses 2.4 watts of energy. So If I turned on all 135 lights simultaneously I would be using 135 x 2.4 = 324 watts. And according to Ohm's law, this means that there would be a current running through the wires of (324 watts divided by 220 Vac) 1.5 Amps. I then looked up wire diameter tables online and got 3 times the diameter I needed, which was 1.5 square millimeters.
I purchased 700 feet (200 meters) of this cable at about $150.00
Below is a link to over 20 photos of my lighting setup (in Picasa web albums)
I figured to grid the ceiling in 1.6 x 1.6 in (50 x 50 cm) squares and put the LEDs in intersections. I needed 135 LEDs.
I looked online and in various stores. I found the best deal in Moscow, Russia to be at LED-LAZAR http://led.promzone.ru/service.htm – a manufactured of LEDs in small town of Serpukhov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpukhov), outside of Moscow.
For the LED - G5.3- 220 whites I paid 70 Russian Rubles which is roughly $2.50
I also bought 20 of the improved/higher luminosity LED-G5.3-6UW-C at 80 Russian Rubles per light bulb, which is roughly $2.75
I bought these at wholesale prices since I was getting over 100 light bulbs.
I paid $275 for 130 of the LED - G5.3- 220 and $55 for the improved LED-G5.3-6UW-C. I spent roughly $330.00 for all my lights.
I then had to buy the fixtures to install the light bulbs in a fake ceiling made out of drywall. These ran 29 Russian Rubles per fixture, which is about $1.00 I spent another $135.00 for the fixtures to install the LED lights into.
Now I had to buy the wires. Each LED uses 2.4 watts of energy. So If I turned on all 135 lights simultaneously I would be using 135 x 2.4 = 324 watts. And according to Ohm's law, this means that there would be a current running through the wires of (324 watts divided by 220 Vac) 1.5 Amps. I then looked up wire diameter tables online and got 3 times the diameter I needed, which was 1.5 square millimeters.
I purchased 700 feet (200 meters) of this cable at about $150.00
Below is a link to over 20 photos of my lighting setup (in Picasa web albums)
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Thank you for THINKING, and
thank you for sharing this.
I think all of the hoopla merely reflects that you have an impressive instructable.
It is EASY to find fault.
Finding diversity and flexibility and ingenuity would be more productive.
Thanks for this. When can you help me with my place? LOL.
I want to do something like this in our laundry room with exposed ceiling. Not being an electrical engineer I was hoping to be able to use an under cabinet modular system and tie it into the existing wiring.
Usually placing 3 LED'S in series will allow them to be powered with 12volts using a current controlling resistor,12 volts seems to be the preferred voltage set up since this allows the user to switch to battery power in case of power outage.If you plan to power many LED'S then I would recommend using a current regulator such as a LM317 or larger current controlling package. LED'S can be powered by low voltage AC as well.
To all those interested in a project like this I suggest NOT using typical dome type LED'S, as these are not designed for lighting applications but rather for indicator applications.The sm5050 is a good choice for low power consumption use at low cost but you will need to use several in a series parallel configuration.
LED'S are available in many wattage's now for lighting applications from less than 1 watt to over 10watt each.
Here is the big design choice. You can opt for modularized "bulbs" each with their own step down rectified power supplies in them, leveraging existing bulb sockets available for a mains 110VAC or 220VAC system, or for various ways to drop current on a 12VAC or DC system, OR you can do it from scratch with the emitters, custom housings, and a single or fewer (think I'd want more than one so A single point failure does not cause loss of all light everywhere) centralized power supply.
Generally the centralized supply will be more power efficient and "can" cost less in total if you are skilled enough to fabricate your own light housings, but it will be much less user/homeowner/etc friendly for someone else to deal with later which is a very good reason to avoid that kind of setup for permanent residential lighting where average people have to deal with problems later opposed to specialized industrial situations or portable and/or disposable lighting devices.
On the other hand if you were to use a centralized supply with fancier circuit including active PFC, your power factor could be very close to 1 so measurements and conclusions about power usage were more precise.
I powered a regular dome LED once with some diodes and a resistor to use as an indicator light in a project I built and was amazed how much power I had to dump to get an LED to work off wall power. I think I used a 5 watt 2200 ohm wire wound resistor and the thing got hot enough to cook on! Calculating it I could have even gotten away using a 2 watt resistor. The 5 watt one I used was almost getting too warm for my liking though so I stuck with it.
It worked out OK replacing a burnt out neon grain bulb I didn't happen to have another on hand to replace it with. But I'm sure it is a massive waste of power.
It is on the right side of the tan box with the black stripe on it in this picture where I'm wasting another 100 watts of power load testing a linear supply I'd built:
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6414/pict0576h.jpg
I was so mad because I'd already cut that case out for that particular indicator lamp then the neon bulb burnt out! All the circuitry for the LED is inside that metal case. I built it on an old lug strip.
For the curious:
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2244/pict0579s.jpg
The insides of that linear supply. It is LM723 based adjustable current limit variable voltage with 3 TO-3 boost transistors. Sorry I never did take a picture of what is inside the tan box. Well, this is one thing in there:
http://i.imgur.com/RJS8T.jpg
The rest is a number of block bridges to rectify outputs and a custom barrier block I made to connect everything together. Mostly it looks like a rat made a nest out of wire though.
The only way you could test the two for me would be to use the same method for both loads. Anything else is apples and oranges I'm afraid.
I'm sure you're saving power, I'm not so sure you know exactly how much power you are saving though. Because actually figuring that out isn't trivial. Well, it isn't for all us folks who can't count every electron flowing past a point. ha ha!
No I really can't, buy more expensive solutions that is. It does appear to be a growing trend that worries me though.
Actually I find it sort of funny that you even thought I could, or maybe even should. A disturbing trend indeed.
Search the net for them.
I will try and install your LED idea in my pad and I hope others will follow suit.
Many thanks for a brilliant (no pun intended) idea.
Bernie Robinson
BatucoCity
Chile
To see if your LED's are wearing or how they're wearing, use a light meter. Good brands are Gossen, Westin, Sekonic, You can find them on eBay really cheaply. You don't need to be worried about how accurate it is as you are only concerned with consistency of the readings.
Thanks again for your work and, for sharing it with the rest of us.
M.
Rich Editor not working right now so it's not the way I'd format it.
g'luck
M
http://www.sekonic.com/Support/EVLuxFootCandleConversionChart.aspx
You can see how this gets pretty inaccurate with a reading like, say, 5.7 EV. A Luxmeter will give you a more accurate idea. Home interiors are around 5-7 EV, or between 80-320 lux. I just measured my 10x10 room with 120w of incandescent bounced into the ceiling and got EV 3. Obviously, the room is pretty dim. Just some food for thought.
And I plan to eventually get the more efficient/whiter/softer kind of lights later on when they become less expensive.
For what it is worth our 3 bedroom apartment uses 106W. 2 x 32W circular fluros in living room, 1 x 8W CFL in each bedroom + Bathroom, 1 x 8W CFL downlight and 2 x 0.9W LED downlight in Kitchen.
Great project, especially the shower LED's. How does the shower work? is that 6 pipes for water coming straight down? or will those pipes have small shower heads on them?
I have 2 questions.
A- how u assemble it, in parallel i suppose so u dont get a blackdown.
B- whats the material u use to put them, in the normal roof and inside the bathroom
C- i got a concrete room that i want to try and a concrete bathroom, can i adapt this by using a false celing or something like that without getting the costs really expensive?
Thank you
About the only thing I can think of to ask/add is if you used any leds other than the white ones so the light was more daylight in appearance not just the stark blue/white of the white led's?
Anyway nice show of what can be done when you get the chance ie when doing the drywall.