SAVING LOTS WITH PC POWER SUPPLIES

[CELTICPSYCHO]

I have been working on diy projects for a while. Thought about saving energy etc. and i got an idea. Most of our a/v appliances have tranformers to give dc power to the circuit boards . so i thought about saving energy by hacking my tv to test my idea. I found the main power supply and tested the dc output and found it to be 12vdc. So i took apart a pc power supply. It has various outputs, from 3.3vdc to 12vdc. And a few of each.

Started having fun with the wiring and, the tv works from the pc power supply. Then, i was in a lighting shop one day, and saw the 12v globes on special, but its the ones that need a starter and capacitor. I bought some and went home. While sitting at my bench, i played around with the globes, and got excited when i saw that the 12v globes, lit up when connected to 5vdc. Not daylight bright, but when i added 5 more, each to a 5vdc contact, it was enough to light up our bedroom. To make it more convienient, i added a switch to each and strategically placed them around the room. Switches in a central area of coarse.
One on each side of the bed for reading and the other 4, i placed to light up the whole room.

So, there i saved up to 20% on electricity, as i can turn the pc power supply off when we are not there.

(Keep in mind, we share a house with my mother in law and 7 other freeloaders)

Then i built phone chargers and also added a small audio circuit to the mix.

So 1 220vac input, powers quite a few dc points and the bill went down dramatically.



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[big-all]

heeelllooo and welcome CELTICPSYCHO
whilst saving money is a good idea your suggested saving can be no more than minimal
a saving off perhaps 20% on led lighting will be perhaps 2 or 3p a day as say 10x 7w led bulbs will burn say an average 70w assuming an average burn over 10 hrs will be 700w a day or perhaps 9p a day total cost so a 20% saving is around 2p a day or not worth any great effort or outlay

[CELTICPSYCHO]

The whole thing is, regardles of tipes of bulds etc, ive been monitoring it for 3weeks and the KW usage is less than it was before i built it.

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[Someone-Else]

CELTICPSYCHO, big-all is not wrong in what he says, you probably had "bigger lamps" than what these globes are that you have now got, by using LED's you will use less energy (depending on the LED's and configuration they are in) so of course you will see a reduction in energy use because you are using less / smaller lamps, its nothing to do with the voltage.

If what you say was "a break through" why is it that its not more common? the answer is you are looking at what you have achieved the wrong way.

Try this. Get a mains lamp of a specific wattage (your choice) lets say 50w (for this example) now get a "low voltage" lamp of the same wattage.
One is at 12v one is at 230v. But they are both using 50watts of energy. So no energy saving there.

Also look at it this way. A person wants to do as you have done (save money) they buy the globes, same as you, (spending money) and they connect them to? oh, they will have to spend more money on buying a (same as you) computer power supply, so any money they would have saved (according to you) they have now lost on buying the power supply.

I also have to point out that when you said

.....and saw the 12v globes on special, but its the ones that need a starter and capacitor.

LED's do not require a starter, what you are looking at is known as a "capacitive dropper" it "drops" the mains voltage to what ever it is designed to drop it to, (5 volts ? in this case) to operate the LED's. Sorry to say this, but that is another thing you have understood in error.

Do what you are doing for the enjoyment / pleasure it gives you, but over all it does not save money.