Comments on: LED lighting can be off the grid and FREE

By: Mr Green

Mr Green — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:41:45 +0000

@Cameron Benz: Hello Cameron, yes, any form of voltage reduction produces losses somewhere along the line. Show me one step down device that does not get warm. That heat is wasted power. I suspect the world receives thousands of kw every day on wasted heat from all the power blocks and step down devices that are left on and running needlessly.

I agree, 24v system have advantages: the higher the voltage the less power loss through a conductor. I use very heavy guage copper wire and that gets expensive, but reduces losses over distance of long runs. The challenge is that LEDs generally have a low forward voltage about 3.2v per module. One way to deal with this is to wire them in series/parralel to achieve a cluster that happily runs off 12 or 24v. There are drawbacks, if you lose a module, the current gets increased for the others and it’s burnout time.

Thanks for your comment

By: Cameron Benz

Cameron Benz — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:08:36 +0000

So, would the decrease in efficiency by converting from 120v to 12v outweigh the decrease in efficiency from charging batteries on solar and “storing” the electricity? Without actually measuring, I have no idea exactly how the 2 would compare.

I tend to favor 24v systems if for no other reason than being able to use smaller gauge wire.

By: Free Eco-Friendly Home Lighting… for Life? | Calfinder Remodeling Blog

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:12:51 +0000

[...] seems too ironic to be true. But as our friends at the Little Green Blog point out, the green technology’s there - we need only take advantage of it. LEDs can long [...]

By: Mr Green

Mr Green — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:54:14 +0000

Hello Sam, thanks for your comment. Part of my series of articles will be do it yourself guides, as this is by far the best and cheapest way to maximise LED lights. However, I’m also going to highlight some recommended retailers both here and abroad that sell LED lighting. These will focus on genuine incandescent replacements and also those that give the best colour quality.

Stay tuned, more interesting LED details coming up in the next few days.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:14:32 +0000

Thanks for this Mr Green, this is fascinating. Lighting for life and for free sound good to me

Not sure about the soldering iron(!) but I shall follow your articles and maybe I’ll have the courage to give it a try myself.

By: Mr Green

Mr Green — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:07:14 +0000

Hey Jeff, thanks for the comment. At the moment most people have a standard grid mains electrical supply, so we do have to cater for their general needs. In time, I would like to see builing design include a low voltage bus, (ideally micro-generation driven) not just for LED lighting, but a whole range of low voltage appliances.

I have an article coming up on this, but when you think about the countless mains plug-in transformers for mobile phones, PDAs, laptop computers, sat-navs … the list goes on. All these plugin “power blocks” produce heat and waste energy just to reduce voltage for low powered appliances.

I wonder how much power loss and heat is produced globally from these things …?

Most of the work is done on my LED projects and I’m in process of documenting the details before I publish here.

By: Jeff Chan

Jeff Chan — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:54:08 +0000

Thanks for the Plug “Mr. Green”! 12V is definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, we do need the transformer in our bulbs to make them truly “plug and play”. Just the idea of “light for life” is amazing. Imagine the huge amount that alot of commercial buildings, hotels etc. are sucking down everyday, not to mention the amount of bad bulbs that they need to throw out into landfills….looking forward to seeing the project completed!