By this time you have probably already heard of the new LED (Light Emitting Diode) light bulbs. The Led bulb is really going to change the world.
The definition of the LED is: A rectifying semiconductor device which converts electrical energy into electromagnetic radiation, in other word, light. The wavelength of the emitted radiation ranges from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, that is, from about 400 to over 1500 nanometers. That’s about as far as we have to go into that.
Why will the LED change the world? Because a well designed LED uses over ninety percent less watts to generate the same amount of light than an incandescent ordinary Edison type light bulb. Now that is a staggering statement all bu itself, but here’s the kicker. These new Led bulbs run cold giving off virtually no heat. They also come in either 12 volts DC or 120 to 240 volts AC. For those of you interested in solar lighting systems this has to be great news.
Just think of the far reaching implications of this energy sipping form of lighting. There are over one hundred and eleven million household in the USA , and the numbers are absolutely exciting. Jut think, if each household only installed enough bulbs to save 1000 watts per day. That would be 111,000,000 X 1000 watts = 111,000,000,000 watts! That’s not too shabby in my book. So that is the direction we are heading in, and my figures are very conservative. Now let’s talk about where this fits into our emerging micro home economy.
Everyone knows that solar electric modules are still expensive to buy. One of the main reasons is that Germany is buying up as many as they can world-wide. Never the less, solar modules are the way to go on a micro home. So when we decided to start an assembly line business to build micro homes we decided that as long as we were heading in that direction we might as well make these tiny homes as close to autonomous as possible.
So why not make them totally off the power grid? That meant going total solar period. A personal goal of mine since entering the solar energy business in 1973.
There are so many advantages to micro homes when it comes to saving energy, and the electric system is one of them. If you add the Led Lighting system to the equation things really start to come together. The LED lighting system drastically reduces the power requirements for the home which in turn reduces the cost of the solar modules, and also lowers the number of solar batteries required to run the system on bad days.
For a careful person living a green lifestyle, a modest solar power supply can be installed for under $1000.00 on a DIY basis. Now what does this give you besides lights you might ask. It will power an inverter large enough to power your computer, or a small TV for a reasonable amount of time and will also charge your cell phone. But mind you, it will take some energy management to do it for that kind of money. You won’t be doing laundry or cooking meals with it. You will have to turn things off when you are done with them.
I have another little tip for potential micro home dwellers and that is to purchase an inexpensive wiring harness for your vehicle that will allow you to charge an extra battery while you are driving back and forth to work etc. It is called a battery isolator. This isolator will allow you to plug into your spare battery to supplement your power
at night to keep more reserve power in your solar batteries for cloudy days.
I will be happy to do my best to answer any further questions on this subject, and I will be guest Blogging on this site for several weeks.
We will be discussing Solar Hot water and heating systems, solar hot air systems, solar heat pumps, composting toilets, building micro homes, zoning issues — I have an attack plan, and any other subject that we can help you with in the green energy field.
For the record, I am 76 years old, and grew up in a 400 square foot micro home, slept in a loft, worked in the mills at age 14, studied solar energy since 1950, and I received my engineering education from the United States Air force. I am also a serious writer, photographer and filmmaker/videographer, and once made a good living at it.
All of our Solar Energy and Micro Home research and development programs are 100% funded by our parent company A to A Global Marketing Inc. I am the sole owner.
We are also proud supporters of www.kiva.org helping third world business people to survive.
A few of web sites are:
Guest Post by Walt Barrett “The Next Billionaires Will Be Green”
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Hi! When will these bulbs be available and from where?
Thanks!
Hi Jackie – these bulbs are available now and you can get them at this link: http://www.chinadepot.com/ledbulb.html
One thing about these light bulbs: although LED’s are inherently more efficient than Incandescent or CFL light bulbs, they do require cooling, and heat sinking to maintain their efficiency, output, and longevity. This means that any bulbs you do buy, should not be used in insulated “can” style light fixtures. The reason is this: 1) heat rises, 2) any heat given off by the bulb will be trapped in the fixture, and 3) any excess heat over even short periods of time will damage the LED’s, and destroy them. These LED bulbs are much better suited to free standing light fixtures, in areas with lots of moving air.
Also, if LED efficiency is what you are looking for, then do not purchase any LED bulb as shown above (the work light with several score 5mm LED’s). Purchase bulbs that use a reputable, and much more efficient “high power” LED from companies such as Cree, LumiLED’s, Seoul Semmiconductors, etc., as these LED’s (when designed for their proper applications) are many times more efficient, and will not fade as quickly (10’s of thousands of hours as opposed to a few dozen, for 5mm LED’s), and their color accuracy will be much higher.
You don’t really need an inverter for most computers, laptops any way. They already run on DC but have their own inverters to run on the system. A log of energy is lost going through the inverter so we should emphasize having more things that run on DC which after all is the future.
be warned that led’s are sensitive to
voltage cutoff & over current,
most incandescents & some fluorescents are not
mixing led manufacturers will better mix
the “white” light to a full spectrum
cheat & get them from spelunking or photography vendors as these users require better CRI