Energycontrol and lighting
Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:15 pm
I realised there was a lot to be gained in terms of energy saving by dealing with the lighting in the office. I spend quite a lot of time in there, so i started analyzing how i could do something about power usage of the lights.
First step i took was replace a single light switch with a double. Since the office is divided in 2 parts divided by a wall (one side being office, other side for washing/drying/closets), i could now switch the lights for where i am sitting seperate from the lights on the other side of the wall; they are hardly ever used. Pulling a few extra wires reduced power usage to 33%.
Next thing i did was take out 2 of the 4 fluorescent lights on the office side; the remaining 2 tubes were powerful enough to keep things still well lit.
Last thing i did recently was replacing the fluorescent light tubes (36W) with LED tubes (15W).
In terms of power usage (or saving) this boils down to the following numbers:
6 tubes x 4 hours x 320 days x 36W = 276480 Wh
2 tubes x 4 hours x 320 days x 15W = 38400 Wh
That's a reduction of 86% or 238 kWh yearly.
Next energy project will be the garage. Every time someone enters the garage to fetch something out of the freezer or fridge, 6(!) 18W fluorescent lights are turned on. Complete overkill ofcourse, so now i am going to place a light bulb near the freezer & fridge and have it turned on and off by motion detection. Just that single light bulb. If more light is needed throughout the whole garage, you can do that manually.
First step i took was replace a single light switch with a double. Since the office is divided in 2 parts divided by a wall (one side being office, other side for washing/drying/closets), i could now switch the lights for where i am sitting seperate from the lights on the other side of the wall; they are hardly ever used. Pulling a few extra wires reduced power usage to 33%.
Next thing i did was take out 2 of the 4 fluorescent lights on the office side; the remaining 2 tubes were powerful enough to keep things still well lit.
Last thing i did recently was replacing the fluorescent light tubes (36W) with LED tubes (15W).
In terms of power usage (or saving) this boils down to the following numbers:
6 tubes x 4 hours x 320 days x 36W = 276480 Wh
2 tubes x 4 hours x 320 days x 15W = 38400 Wh
That's a reduction of 86% or 238 kWh yearly.
Next energy project will be the garage. Every time someone enters the garage to fetch something out of the freezer or fridge, 6(!) 18W fluorescent lights are turned on. Complete overkill ofcourse, so now i am going to place a light bulb near the freezer & fridge and have it turned on and off by motion detection. Just that single light bulb. If more light is needed throughout the whole garage, you can do that manually.