Sorry for being a potential thicko, but can someone advise me of the power consumption of 4 x 50w 12v halogen lamps connected to mains via a transformer please? just had a humungous leccy bill and am trying to economise! Cheers, Eggy
Assuming transformer is 100% efficient (probably about 95%), loaded system draws 200W (not a lot). The lamps' voltage is immaterial. That's roughly 1kW every 5 hours. Try to economise on things that consume big kWs - for heating, mainly.
4 x 50 plus a bit for transformer losses but as the 50W is only nominal and will vary with actual voltage for most practical purposes just take the 4 x 50 = 200W figure.
On no not another "big 'lectric bill" thread. Wander over to google and find the other two recent threads. Interesting how the price increases of the last 2 years suddenly come home to roost isn't it.
Errrrm depends what you mean by not a lot !
200W at 50% duty cycle over a year = 876kWh, at, say, 8p a unit, that's over £70.Hardly 'not a lot' on an average leccy bill !
Slurp
Space heating yes but the kettle, cooker etc aren't so easy. Take a good look at lighting, especialy that which is on for long periods.
Our living room was lit by 6 x 40W bulbs =3D 240W, changed to 6 x 9W CFLs, same if not higher lighting level but only 54W. These lights where also on for the best part of 18hrs+ per day, every day... Old lamps about 4.5units/day, CFLs 1 unit/day, saving about 25p/day. Capital cost of CFLs saved in about 6 months and nearly =A3100 knocked off the annual power bill.
No, 200W is never 1kW, it is however 1kWH every 5 hours!
oops, 1kWh ;-)
Plus bulb replacement costs. And thats just for one room, and for lighting only.
I'd ditch the halogens and go cfl.
NT
Just shop around for another 'lekky' provider.
I was with Scottish Hydro and they started with a direct debit from my account of =A350 per month which was about right. This soon jumped to =A370/month and then to =A385 per month. Now I'm about =A340 in CREDIT each quarter. So that's very nice for them to have MY money in THEIR account. No increase in equipment at my end of the line.
So you just go on-line and look at 'lekky' providers. I've just switched to Scottish Gas and they say my monthly bill will be about =A330. I think that will be a tad low over a quarter, but we'll see.
Some providers even let you submit a meter reading by e-mail.................. WOW.
Chris.
Funny how years of exhortation by the lentilistas makes not the slightest difference to consumption, but bung the price up and all of a sudden people are turning down thermostats, switching off lights, fitting what my M-I-L calls "long playing light bulbs" and so on.
And even yours truly has turned to the Dark Side and bought a diesel car, halving my fuel consumption, and re-organised the computers so we only need to leave one switched on all the time instead of four.
It's what I meant, it equates to roughly 1kW used for an hour (1kWh) in every 5 hours. And which room is it that needs 200W of halogen lighting burning for, say, 8 hours daily? Jim
I wish the lighting industry would get their proverbial finger out and produce some decent fittings for CFL's.
For example, as part of the kitchen re-work, I could ideally fit about 4 down-lighters for the sink area & breakfast bar, as these are somewhat shaded from the main fluorescent lighting. But no way will I use halogens - I would intended that these lights would be the ones left most of the time for background illumination. Best solution so far seems to be some GU10 halogen replacement CFL's by "Megaman".
Still a little bigger then the halogen, so careful choice of fittings required.
Then we get to up-lighters - "saucer on a pole" type things. With typically 300W of linear halogen in them. Cheap yes, but not efficient. An ideal application for using circular tubes, 2D or PL type lamps.
I've seen them in commerical applications (reception areas) - no idea who would make them though.
Thanks for your input people, will go for these compact fluorescent jobbies methinks!
Where do you get 50% over a year from?
Do you leave your lights on all night?
I would say the highest duty cycle for lighting in our house in the depth of winter is a lot less than 50% and less than 10% in the summer. Over a year I would say an average duty cycle of 20% or less is more appropriate or less than =A330 by your figures.
MBQ
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