DIYbanter - View Single Post - How much power does a 120v 15A lighted switch use anyway?

Nate Nagel

On 06/10/2010 05:38 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:59:45 -0700,
wrote:

On 09/06/10 1:22 PM, Roy wrote:
On Jun 9, 11:30 am, wrote:
On 07/06/10 12:07 PM, Don Klipstein wrote:

In , SMS wrote:
On 17/05/10 6:53 PM, Glenda Copeland wrote:
I snip a bit to edit for space

Do you know how much power a lighted switch uses?

These have an NE-2 neon bulb which draws about 0.6mA, so at 120V it's
around 0.07 watts. So 1000 lighted switches would be a little less than
a 75 watt light bulb.

My experience with a lighted switch is that its neon lamp is either
an A1C ("mini-NE-2H") or a C2A (NE-2H). Those get more like 2 mA.

I was going by the NE-2, which actually is about 0.03W at 120V, but an
NE-2H is about 0.2W, and an A1C is about 0.14W. So if the light switch
was never turned on, and it was an NE-2H, it would be about 1.7KWH per
year, so you're right, about 2KW a year if it's an NE-2H.

==
Which is negligible...not to worry about...not to budget for...not to
have ulcers over. In other words...forget it.

I agree, probably 25 cents per switch per year. But didn't someone claim
that they'd reduced their electric bill by $2.50 a month by getting rid
of a bunch of these sorts of loads? I doubt if it was true.

25 cents a year is enough for me to rip them all out from my house. I
already got rid of the doorbell because the doorbell transformer costs
close to $10 a year. It dont cost anything to post a sign on the door
that says "KNOCK HARD".

If you want to see your light switches at night. put one of those
solar powered sidewalk lights in a window in every room.

I couldn't find any white Decora style dimmer switches that *weren't*
also lighted in any store near me. That's the main reason that I have
two lighted switches in my house (the design department wanted Decora on
the first floor.)

nate

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