How long before my energy saving idea becomes practical?

Question

Soon all lighting house and street will be by LEDs which is much more controlable. My idea is the light unit has a sensor so the light is only on if the room is occupied or a person or car is in that section of the road. Not only are LEDs more effective but this plan would save a great deal of energy

Answer 1

Excellent concept. I like the idea of on/off depending on need, and LEDs as economical light sources. Good thinking.

Answer 2

LED lighting is steadily becoming more common. LED house lighting is presently available and is relatively competitive with other lights, however, it has not hit the shelves in a big way.

LED lighting is also used in some street lights (e.g. some traffic lights in Australia) where they also provide the safety advantage that if one or two die the light remains on as there are many other still working. Technology even exists for solar powered LED street lights.

Addition of motion sensors may be difficult to implement as many people probably wouldn't want them. You may need a way to force a light to stay on without movement (if you were reading without moving for example) and people may just end up using that as a normal light switch. As for cars it may be difficult from a safety point of view to guarantee that a road would be lit and lights turning on and off may be an unsafe distraction for drivers.

Answer 3

The room idea is pragmatic, but you have to have it work well. I'd say there's nothing stopping you from doing this right away. Just consumer cost will be your only deterrent to your path to sucess.

The road light thing is many many years away, albeit a decent idea conceptually. Sensor reliablity, as well as the cost of retrofitting existing street lamps will be bringing the idea to a standstill.

With all that said. If there was the equivalent LED light source for every light bulb there would be much less energy consumed.

Answer 4

There are several problems in the way of this being adopted by a large percentage of the population. But perhaps you, or someone else, can find answers to these problems. One is the lack of movement in a room initiating the light to cut off. If we are sitting still in front of our TVs, or sitting on the toilet reading the local newspaper, there will be very little movement for the sensor to read. Vehicles travel at erratic speeds. The technology will have to be much more accurate than it currently is. Once that is solved - surely it is solvable - then we have the need for celebrity glamour to make it popular. (I always wondered what they were good for!)

I'm also concerned about the illuminating qualities of LED light. It currently seems very weak to me.

Keep at it. You are on a reasonable track.

Answer 5

Motion sensors for walkways and bathrooms are already pretty much everywhere in Germany. The part-time lights for surburban streets sounds good. I don't remember seeing LED lights on anything except hats. So, I guess when LED gets commercially available they'll hook it all up with X10 compliant devices.

Answer 6

LEDs are much more expensive. The senor idea might work in houses, but the street lights would be problematic. If there was a malfunction and the lights failed to turn on, there would be serious problems.

Answer 7

More sensors would have to be fitted to operate the switches, and these would need powering, so it sort of defeats the object. Also if they became faulty, it may need a technician to come out and repair the set up, which would result in extra fuel being used. So I am afraid it could be a non starter?

Answer 8

I was in a warehouse recently where motion sensors turned lights off and on. As we walked through lights came on and went off behind us. Just the lights in the portion of the warehouse where we were came on.

It was sort of weird because the rest of the warehouse was dark.

But you better get going or you're going to be left in the dust.

Answer 9

Fix the heat loss wrap the hot and cold pipes . To fix the creaking add a slip of soft plastic in the clamps on the pipe . To end the water hammer use an air pocket in the pipe design at the corners. I don't like on demand hot water i like to see warm water only. The stove is there.

Answer 10

So motion detectors? Couldn't the same concept just be applied to 'the clapper?' Clap to save energy!