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- inactive, on 12/21/2008, -4/+109 * Energy savings of 1.9 × 1020 joules
* Electrical energy consumption would be reduced by terawatt hours
* Financial savings of $1.83 trillion
* Carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 10.68 gigatons
* Crude oil consumption would be reduced by 962 million barrels
* The number of required global power plants would be reduced by 280
Amazing sums. Apply that to electric / solar co generation houses and vehicles and the Oil / gas / coal figure alone would be amazingly large. About 2/3 of current Oil production alone would be excessive. If only the governments of the world would stop throwing money at big oil, big power and poorly performing "old technology". - michaelpinto, on 12/21/2008, -5/+71It's not sexy but I think that fuel and consumption efficiency will be the next "big thing".
- Nerys, on 12/21/2008, -1/+38all I can say is DUH
I have worked over the last 6+ years to convert so far 50% of my home to LED
I light my bedroom as bright a day on 27 watts of power (and its twice a bright as most people "want") I prefer bright
my bathrooms consume 9watts each and are also very very bright much brighter than with CFL's
My kitchen consumes 18watts
the bedrooms consume less than 20 watts each
I am working on the rest of the rooms as I can afford or find more appropriate bulbs
I should be able to REMOVE my house illumination from the grid all together within a year. once I am fully led all light on at the same time should consume less than 400 watts and this is a very large 2 story house with full basement.
at that power consumption it suddenly becomes practical to put up a very modest solar panel and small battery pack to run the house lights.
For christmas I put up over 4000 led bulbs and consume less than 300 watts. I finally got some green led rope light this year to replace my last incan christmas light string. I am now 100% led for the holidays. I have NEVER EVER in 7 years had to replace an LED christmas light. well ok I had one red led go out on a spiral tree but that was within the first week of turning it on. I located and replaced that one led and no problems since.
NOW led house lights. there not as reliable. not because led's are bad but because the people that make them have no clue. 80% of the power you put into an LED comes out as heat and led's can NOT tolerate heat they die and die fast when they get too hot.
Fuel Consumption is easy. Revoke the NIMH patent chevron is using to prevent us from having battery electric cars
problem solved. - poidh, on 12/21/2008, -9/+39Sweet. Anything which socks it to the Saudis.
- ljfrench, on 12/21/2008, -6/+31Has anyone noticed that LED fixtures that put out an even, dimmable light on par with incandescents are much more expensive to purchase, install, and dim? Cree LED fixtures, 12W, 650 lumens, similar to a 100W incandescent bulb, run around $400-$500. They save 88W of electricity, and at $0.15 per kwh, they're 1.3 cents per hour cheaper.
That makes a savings of ~$115 per year if run continuously. Which means ~4 years to equal the cost of running incandescent.
By the way, the LEDs are rated for 40,000 - 50,000 hours of life, which is about 4-5 years before they need replacement (again, continuous use).
So, you need ~4 years to equal the cost and they have to be replaced after ~5 years. Are we really saving anything here? Or are we just shifting the burden from power plants to electronics manufacturers?
By the way, the state and federal gov'ts help regulate the costs of electricity. They don't regulate the costs of LED lighting.
Just some food for thought. - urbanRock, on 12/21/2008, -0/+23As demand for LED lighting increases, wouldn't that make the price of the bulbs go down? I have already noticed this trend in LED Christmas lights, which were nearly double the price last year compared to this year.
- Frozo, on 12/21/2008, -3/+25Take from the Saudis, give to the Chinese. Who do you think will be making all these lights? The time is NOW to jump back on board and start bolstering new industries in this America again.
- beabis, on 12/21/2008, -1/+19A good start to smart lighting would be to tear down all of the power hungry, light polluting street lights and install self contained, solar powered LED/reflector delineators in the highway. They get their power from the sun and don't blot out the stars.
See them here:
http://www.astucia.co.uk/catalog_category.aspx?cat ... - kdor, on 12/21/2008, -2/+20Sure beats toxic mercury in CF the bulbs the dumbass government wants us to use. You won't have to call HazMat if one breaks. Can't be broken into tiny shards that get into your feet at night. Actually, as with anything, as production rises, cost drops and innovative things happen. Despite the drawbacks, as an example, CF bulbs have dropped to about a dollar apiece. I remember when they were $8-10 each. I have a warm colored CF in my desk lamp that is nicer light than the incandescent bulb it replaced. A white LED can be color scrimmed or tinted or mixed with red and green LEDs to adjust color temperature. Video production has had LED broadlights available for a couple of years. They save enourmous amounts of power and cut small set heat load from all the lights. Lots of 'disco' fixtures are converting to LED's already. I have clients who could actually prevent additional electrician fees to increase building power capacity, as well as the power consumption, cooling and ongoing replacement costs, if they put in LED fixtures to increase video lighting. LED's have a lot of advantages.
- richiewrt, on 12/21/2008, -5/+22The problem with that is more windows means less insulation and more money/oil spent on heating/cooling.
- CasinoJack, on 12/21/2008, -4/+18100 years ago people were probably making the same comparison between incandescents and gas lights.
- poidh, on 12/21/2008, -1/+13I'm certainly not pro-giving to the Chinese. I'm all for bringing industry back. I'd even pay a little more if it meant keeping the money out of the hands of ***** like the Chinese Government.
- hanexar, on 12/21/2008, -0/+11Artificial lighting is very "natural" to begin with.
- inactive, on 12/21/2008, -1/+12Energy efficient windows have come a LONG way with triple pane windows....If installed correctly, you shouldn't see much of a difference in heating..
That may have been true 20 years ago...but not so much anymore - rolf, on 12/21/2008, -0/+11Right now, CFLs in many applications will make more economic sense. They save almost as much and not have the initial cost issue in the same magnitude as LEDs.
I give LEDs about 5-10 years before they make good lightbulb replacements. It needs to mature and they need to get over several inefficiencies although they have the most potential as a technology to do that. - vtbarrera, on 02/03/2009, -1/+11Seems like a pretty good way to stem energy consumption from something that everyone uses all the time.
- breckinloggins, on 12/21/2008, -3/+12I learned that debating technique in college :)
(also, the "***** You" was at the "you dumbass" part. I felt that was unnecessary given that all I did was ask for a source.) - inactive, on 12/21/2008, -0/+9Here in Northern Ireland, we use a mixture of coal, natural gas and oil at our three power stations.
So yes, "we" do burn oil to make electricity. There's a world, and digg members, outside North America. - Nerys, on 12/21/2008, -0/+9First there are alternatives to cree fixtures. I would rot in hell before I pay that much money.
I get 198led tubes for $11 a pop and they are as bright as a 50watt bulb so $22 gets me a 100watt equivalent.
They consume 7 watts total for both. do the math.
also NO ONE and I mean NO ONE measure light life span in CONTINUOUS hours because NO ONE typically RUNS THEM continiously.
so 50,000 hours means it will last the AVERAGE person 35 years MINIMUM (if its built right and cree's usually are)
more likely you will see 50 years out of it.
The bulbs I use will probably last in excess of 100,000 hours since I am running them at 25% of there rated wattage (heat issues) which would mean that in theory the bulb will still be working long after I die and possibly longer than my kids will live.
Not bad ehh :-)
One word of warning. if you can so much as FEEL any heat coming from an LED and it does not have an aggressive and obvious heat sink its NOT going to last very long.
IE those "par" style bulbs on ebay. well so far my FAILURE rate for those bulbs is 100% they run them TOO hot to make them brighter and have ZERO effective cooling surface area. LED's require 9 square centimeters of cooling PER WATT consumes power in passive cooling.
Most of them need to cut the wattage to 1/3 of what they are running and increase the NUMBER of led's to make them brighter NOT the amount of watts.
the tubes I used lasted about 60 days till the died turned blue in 30-40 days.
they were running at 12watts. I used a variac and started lowering the volts till they stop overheating. proper running voltage ended up being 80volts and 3.5 watts per tube.
at that level I have been running them for nearly 2 years not one problem yet.
so buyer beware. if you want to get into LED's you can and you can CHEAPLY but you need to educate yourself and do it right. your going to have to work around flaws in design of these ebay bulbs. these people refuse to understand that if you can FEEL the heat your already too hot. (unless you have a nice heat sink on there) - inactive, on 12/21/2008, -4/+12Another suggestion
100+ years ago, homes were built with 30+ windows so as to let more light in during the day thus reducing the need for a lighting source. "Modern" homes have fewer than 15 windows which are MUCH smaller so the comparison is really much LESS windows when compared to back then.
Lets start making homes with more windows or start adding more windows to existing homes to allow more NATURAL light in during the day thus FURTHER reducing electricity demand...coupled with CFL or LED lighting, you can reduce your electric demand SIGNIFICANTLY..... - failtrain, on 12/21/2008, -1/+9Spend less on lighting!
Spend more on heating!
Profit!
...Oh, wait. - dustinl4m3, on 12/21/2008, -0/+8LED grow lights ;)
http://www.solaroasis.com/index.html - inactive, on 12/21/2008, -0/+8Diesel generators are used in remote towns. Until 1990 Australia alone had 1400+ towns of 200 + souls using diesel generators. Many still do. Its cheaper to truck in Diesel than it is to cable a town 500 kilometers from the nearest connection. Some towns are 1200kl from nowhere to nowhere else..
- SillyRabbits, on 12/21/2008, -0/+8@rolf
It's not a lumens issue anymore. Here's a link to a 10 watt bulb that outputs 900 lumens which is more than a 75 watt incandescent. http://www.lizardlighting.com/content/new_led_ligh ...
The directionality of the light is almost a non-issue. This was solved long ago by simply adding diffusers. Some companies have even incorporated the diffusers into the bulb itself. A lot of people simply pick up a $10 LED flashlight and assume that all LED lighting is that way. - mu0p, on 12/21/2008, -0/+7A window based economy has been debunked plenty of times, stop trying to shove your agenda down our ***** throats.
- rolf, on 12/21/2008, -0/+6We can work toward all that and more at the same time. They'll all be big deals.
- reddikilowatt, on 12/21/2008, -0/+6They aren't really all that practical if there's already power available. As ugly as they are, low pressure sodium streetlights are some of the most efficient lamps available.
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/li ... - inactive, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5Happened to my roommate's family, once they started using less energy, Duke Power hit them with a "green usage fee".
- inactive, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5These are lights used to grow cannabis to roll into marijuana cigarettes that you smoke to get high.
- diggydougie, on 12/22/2008, -0/+5Law enforcement will declare that LED lights are illegal because they can't detect them with the infrared cameras.
- BDJC, on 12/21/2008, -1/+6Sure it would be nice to go with lights not containing mercury, but in reality, CFL lamps release less mercury into the atmosphere than incandescent lamps. While I agree that LED's would be better than CFL's (as far as HG goes), but CFL's are leaps and bounds ahead of incandescent lamps. Let me enlighten you:
The CFL Merrcurry Issue:
- A CFL contains < 5 mg of mercury (Hg).
- Coal-fired power (49% of US kWh) releases Hg.
- Incandescents use more electricity and thus cause more Hg release than CFLs.
- A 75-watt incan. (on 8 hr/day) uses ~150 kWh/yr, causing release of 3,300 mg of Hg/yr.
- A 20-watt CFL uses only ~40 kWh, yielding 880 mg Hg/yr.
- The CFL lasts ~5 years, so its own mercury (5 mg/lamp) adds only ~1mg Hg/yr.
- CFLs cut Hg & CO2 by 73%. - biotch, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5jflaker,
Not everyone has $1500 per window to make them triple pane so they can save $20 per window a year.... Ill stick with my walls and fewer windows for now. - inactive, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5According to FPL, we have a fuel oil charge per KWH. That means either FPL is scamming 6 million people in FL, or they use oil to generate electrcity.
- inactive, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5NO WAY !!
- TheFinaleofSeem, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5Precisely. The initial cost of LEDs right now is just not enough to justify long-term savings. Once that gets low enough, I think we'll see them take off.
- Licurgo, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4instead of put led's and bulbs everywhere,¿ why not make cheaper night vision googles? if everybody can see on the dark, no illumination needed ¡¡¡¡
- subliminalurge, on 12/22/2008, -0/+4"There's a world outside North America."
Oh come on... How gullible do you think I am? - Nerys, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4but most of these homes were BUILT 20+ years ago. it will take decade for this new tech to trickle down into consumer homes and even then it costs to much to knock down walls to install newer better windows.
houses tend to last so they are pretty much stuck as they are for now. - lanmanager, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4This is interesting. I was in the local home store yesterday shopping for a fluorescent fixture for above my kitchen sink. Among the various fluorescent, halogen and xenon displays were LED strips. I had seen these before but they were laughable compared to the other light sources even with large number of LED'S in the bars. However an newer LED strip at the bottom of the retail display caught my eye. It was very impressive. Very bright light from just 5 diodes. I estimate temperature about 4K. Box stated 5.5w/hour. Held strip in my hand - warm but not uncomfortable. As far as I could tell the light output was comparable to the halogens in intensity and temperature. But the killer was $49US. Could not bring myself to do that.
- inactive, on 12/21/2008, -1/+5yes because heating up a tungsten filament until it glows brightly always happens in nature.
- logandurand, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4Very little home power comes from oil; if you want to hate on the Saudis, cut your gas consumption.
- iliketowin, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4But I need 1.21 gigawatts!!!!!!!!
- garlicdeath, on 12/21/2008, -1/+5You make a persuasive counter argument Breck.
- aaronhoffmeyer, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4You are overlooking something incredibly obvious ... but I will bite, then explain what you are overlooking further down.
You ask, "How much will it cost to replace every light in the world with LEDs?"
Do the math ...
My home is probably fairly typical in the US, in that I have 25 lightbulbs. I live with one other person. Just using my home as a reference (I doubt the worldwide average per person is more than 12.5 lightbulbs per person). An internet search didn't turn up any number, but for purposes of this discussion, let's say there are 8 billion people, each with 12.5 lightbulbs. That is 100 billion bulbs. My guess is that this number is high. Again, I am basing this on the typical American.
If each bulb costs $3, then the cost would be $300 billion. If the lights last only five years (LED bulbs last more than 10 years, on average), the total cost would be $600 billion.
Now, what you are overlooking is the cost of replacing CFT and regular incandescent bulbs. Incandescents only last a couple of years based on normal use, and cost about $1-2 to replace. Over ten years, with incandescents, each person would have to replace each bulb 5 times. At the lower cost, that would be 8 billion people X 10 years /2 years per bulb X 12.5 bulbs per person X $1 per bulb, which would be $500 billion.
CFTs, which are rated at for 7-10 year lifespans would also cost in the mid-hundred billions.
So, the LEDs will probably only increase the cost spent on bulbs by $100 billion or so, yet they use a fraction of the energy.
So, what you are comparing is nearly $2 trillion in energy savings to a nominal increase in cost for the bulbs. Most of that nearly $2 trillion would really be saved. In fact, when you factor in the raw materials required to make the bulbs, the actual savings is greater. - videographer, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4If you buy the dimmable CFLs, they can be dimmed. Just sayin'.
- BradBrown, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4I like your logic and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
- tgc1, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4I think that's illegal. They can only charge you for the utilities you use directly from them. Anything else is your own business, not theirs.
- tunafizzle, on 12/21/2008, -0/+4That's real slimy/*****, my electric company PPL, is actually giving discounts for buying more energy friendly products and telling dozens of ways to save electricity.
Seriously though, "green usage fee"? Call the bureau of better business's or the district attorney and file a class action. That's *****. - OMnicient, on 12/21/2008, -0/+3I use some cool and warm white Luxeons that look as natural as any incandescent or fluorescent.
Of course, these babies set me back $3 each, and it takes four to light the area where the couch is, but they will last for 50,000 hours before they lose 25% of their efficiency.
But the profile and savings mean I'll NEVER go back! - TheFinaleofSeem, on 12/21/2008, -0/+3Really? The power company here is actually giving away boxes of CFLs. Apparently they get so much money from the government per year for energy efficiency programs, so they spent them on CFLs for customers. Not a bad idea. My whole house (minus a bedside lamp with a dimmer) is now CFL.
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