I have had a lighted switch at my day job. It had a high intensity neon lamp, apparently either C2A (NE-2H) or A1C ("mini NE-2H) (hard to tell through the switch). Figure about 1/4 watt.
I had experience with a lighted switch at my day job. The neon lamp was definitely a high intensity type, probably C2A (NE-2H) or A1C ("mini NE-2H").
Figure about 1/4 watt for those, which means around 2.2 KWH per year times 1/100 of the percentage of the time that the neon lamp is on.
That is, until the neon lamp starts flickering (uses less then) after
25,000-50,000 hours. High intensity neon lamps in 120 VAC use tend to flicker and then gradually completely die as they age. Standard intensity ones do less of that and more of simply fading from their bulbs being discolored.
mm Close. I get .096 watts with one that has a 150,000 ohm resistor in series with lamp. So if the utility KW cost $ .10 you can figure out the rest. WW
Agree: We have a lighted switch still working some 40 years later with a small neon inside it. The neon glows when the switch is 'off'. Making it easy to find the switch in the dark! Presumably the switch mentioned by the OP is that? There are however other switches that light 'on' when the switch is operated, useful for indicating that something remote and out of site has been left on .................! In our case that could be "Oh. The lighted switch in the kitchen shows the garage light has been left on"! Typically indicators employ a neon using 'a couple of milliamps'. Probably around 115 x 0.003 =3D maybe 4 one hundredths of a watt at the most!
24 hours a day 365 days =3D 24 x 365 x 0.04 =3D 302 watts or 0.3 k.watt.hrs. each; per year. At ten cents per k.watt.hr that's about 3 cents per lighted switch, per year. That is the equivalent of leaving one 100 watt bulb switched on, once, for one or two seconds or so, longer than necessary!
A typical (neon) spec might be.
DC breakdown volts:70avg DC maintain volts:59avg after 100 hours at design current design current/milliamps 0.3 end of life is 5v change in breakdown for maintaining voltage maximum diameter:0.275inchs neon glow lamp pre-aged:no voltage range:105-125v
PS: Remembering that in operation there will be a small resistor in series with the neon indicator and the whole thing (resistor plus neon) will be across the 115 volt supply (switch off) so that most of the 302 watts per year will be dissipated by the resistor and least by the neon indicator itself. At this low power the resistor will not even get warm! Except academically the whole topic of how much power is used by each neon indicator, similar to those on appliances etc. is not worth bothering about. Leaving an outside door open for a few minutes during winter, for example, to bring in groceries on a cold/windy day, will entail more heating cost than a years use of ten such indicators!
Our utility prices are 11 cents (¢) per kilowatt (KW) for the first KW of the month but 48¢ for the last two or three weeks' worth of kilowatts. I would guess the average KW out here to then be about 35¢.
So, if I add a dozen of these lighted switches, and they're on most of the day, say, 20 hours per day for 30 days in a month, at .096 watts per hour, that comes to about a penny per day, I think.
12switches x 20hours/day x 30days/month x 0.1watts x 35¢/KW x 1KW/1000W =
25¢/month
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