In article ,
Glenda Copeland
wrote:

On Tue, 18 May 2010 01:53:25 +0000 (UTC), Glenda Copeland wrote:

Just bought a dozen Leviton decora single pole 15A 120VAC lighted rocker
switches (model 5611, aka model 105-05611-21S).
Do you know how much power a lighted switch uses?

You guys have cheap electricity!

I just pulled out my California PG&E bill to check the numbers (I can't
believe you guys pay only a dime per Kwh!!!!!. Lucky you!)

My baseline is 365.4Kwh at 12¢/Kwh
Then for 101% to 130% of baseline, it's 14¢/Kwh.
For 131% to 200%, it's 29¢/Kwh.
And, for the last few weeks of the month, at 201% to 300% of baseline, it's
43¢/month.

I averaged this to about 35¢/Kwh because I didn't know how to do the math
otherwise (I used over 150 Kwh at the 131% to 200% rate and 256 Kwh at the
29¢ rate).

.1W/bulb x 12switches x 20hours/day x 365days/year x 35¢/Kwh x 1Kwh/1000KW
= $3.00/year

It would be nice to see what others pay for 201% to 300% over baseline 'cuz
if it's 10¢, you have the deal of the century!

So you use up your monthly baseline allocation in a week? Maybe try a
little conservation, that's the idea. And you're worried about a damn
neon bulb?

Well it is no problem if there is just *one* and it is only on for one hour.
But there are hundreds of these little lights around a home and they are on
24 hours a day 365 days a year...

As with everything else when being frugal, things add up! Learn to add.

These little power on lights are in everything these days. Try to find a
power strip without any lights in it. GFCI outlets have little lights in
them now. Everything has little lights.

I know electronics and electrical wiring, so I was able to disconnect all of
these lights around my home (the green light in a GFCI was the straw - I
said Enough!). With the GFCI's, I rewired my house so these outlets are now
on 20 amp switches. They are off when not in use.

A good example are outside outlets which are GFCI. Maybe used once or twice
a year in my case, but the GFCI for that is always on and using a little
electricity.

My electric bill went down $2.50 a month after doing this. (GFCI's also
always use electricity even if they don't have any lights.)

That is a $30 a year savings. I need that money a lot more than my electric
company does.

My neighbors on the other hand (who can't add), buy things everyday which
cost $1 or $2. They say it is just $1. And they do this several times a day.
Buy soda pop, coffee at the stand (it is just $2.50), etc.

Then by the end of the month, they are a couple of hundred dollars short and
don't have enough for their bills.

Learn to add. Little things add up...

Note: I don't suggest that people go out an hire an electrician to modify
their existing wiring, that would be silly. I can do these things for almost
nothing, so that is a different situation. But if you are rewiring your
kitchen for example, place a couple of extra switches next to the light
switch - have those switches turn off the counter top outlets. This will
remove power to the GFCI's and to parasitic loads (like appliances which
always use electricity). Just flip several switches and everything is off in
the kitchen!

On parasitic loads...
Leaking Electricity: Individual Field Measurement of Consumer Electronics -
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
http://enduse.lbl.gov/info/ACEEE-Leaking.pdf

On 17/05/10 6:53 PM, Glenda Copeland wrote:
Just bought a dozen Leviton decora single pole 15A 120VAC lighted rocker
switches (model 5611, aka model 105-05611-21S).

Nothing on the box says how much power each of the lighted bulb uses when
the switch is in the off position.

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.

Suffice it to say, the watt-hours you'd save with even 50 unlighted
versus lighted switches would barely be measurable, even over the course
of a year.

Some people unplug things like phone chargers when not in use. I.e. an
iPhone charger draws 0.2W even when the phone is not connected, close to
3X what a lighted switch draws, but still a trivial amount.

You can buy power strips with individual switches to avoid unplugging
wall warts all the time. But you'd probably never recover the cost of
the power strip in saved electricity.

In , wrote:

On Tue, 18 May 2010 01:53:25 +0000 (UTC), Glenda Copeland
wrote:

Just bought a dozen Leviton decora single pole 15A 120VAC lighted rocker
switches (model 5611, aka model 105-05611-21S).

Nothing on the box says how much power each of the lighted bulb uses when
the switch is in the off position.

Do you know how much power a lighted switch uses?

A neon uses about 0.15KWH a year.

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.

- Don Klipstein )

On Tue, 18 May 2010 02:25:44 +0000 (UTC), Don Klipstein wrote:

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.

I don't understand the 1/100th the percentage (figure 98% of the time the
switch is off so the neon bulb is on).

What's the 1/100 for?

On 5/18/2010 10:11 AM Glenda Copeland spake thus:

On Tue, 18 May 2010 02:25:44 +0000 (UTC), Don Klipstein wrote:

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.

I don't understand the 1/100th the percentage (figure 98% of the time the
switch is off so the neon bulb is on).

What's the 1/100 for?

Yeah, Don, what's up with that? Nothing more annoying than unexplained
"adjustments" like that.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

On May 18, 2:25*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 5/18/2010 10:11 AM Glenda Copeland spake thus:

On Tue, 18 May 2010 02:25:44 +0000 (UTC), Don Klipstein wrote:

* 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.

I don't understand the 1/100th the percentage (figure 98% of the time the
switch is off so the neon bulb is on).

What's the 1/100 for?

Yeah, Don, what's up with that? Nothing more annoying than unexplained
"adjustments" like that.

99% is defined as 99 times 1/100.

In , Glenda Copeland wrote:
On Tue, 18 May 2010 02:25:44 +0000 (UTC), Don Klipstein wrote:

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.

I don't understand the 1/100th the percentage (figure 98% of the time the
switch is off so the neon bulb is on).

What's the 1/100 for?

1/100 of 98 is .98. That would mean KWH per year is 2.2 times .98,
which is 2.156.

--
- Don Klipstein )