Here I show a comparrison between LED, CFL, and incandescent 40 watt “equivilent” 120v AC light bulbs. I am using a simple “home brew” solar powered AC system for the test. This was done to simulate an “off grid” situation. Use of 12v bulbs (without the energy loss of the inverter) would be another interesting test but this test was done to test the efficiency of the AC bulbs used in this fashion.
:: air conditioning with solar power ::
17 Responses to Simple home solar energy system— with 120v AC Light Bulb comparrision
I can’t get anything beyond 40 watts in an incandescent in the Nashville area at Lowes or Home Depot now yet the law in the USA says 100 watts this year then 75 next and finally 60 watt in 2015 but it seems the fix is in because even the CFL section has been shrunk down (2.50 vs 60.00 is why).
I prefer the LED bulbs but not at their current prices I don’t.
Guys, making your own home energy does not have to be hard (I used to think it did). I’ll give you some advice right now. Search a alternative home energy known as Xobotano Home Energy (do a search on google). Seriously, Xobotano Home Energy has save a large amount of my money. I probably shouldn’t even be mentioning it because I don’t want a bunch of other folks out there running the same “game” but whatever, I am in a great mood today so I will share the wealth haha.
Hot: /watch?v=3fI1SuxbV6I
Check this: /watch?v=2tNfinipTW0
Hi Lidmotor! thanks a lot for your demo
May I ask you if you know about to produce oneself solar cells and in cheap way by preference?
Cheer.
I live in Japan and I found them in an electronics shop in a market here. They aren’t seeling anymore at the shop.
They are Teknos LE-04W bulbs. I found a few on the the net, but the link is very long. Amazon had some.
I have other lights similar to Lights of America and they act like that too in series. 2 in series goes up to a bout 500ma, but in parallel it’s about 700ma. My set up might be different though. You could try other bulbs you have.
Anyways, love your work~!
Thanks. I’ll see if I can find those 4W 250lm LED bulbs.
Have you tried putting LEDs in series with the French Flipflop? Depending on the bulbs I got some interesting results. I found some cheap Chinese 4W 250lm LEDs which gave me some nice light. 1 is 400ma fully lit. 2 are 800ma fully lit (not sure why) 3 in series dropped lm slightly and goes back to 400ma (not sure why) but nice light. Can light 3 rooms of my house reasonably well on 400ma.
Anyway, I’ve followed your work for a long time and you have inspired me and helped me a lot.
Thank you~!
Dear Lidmotor,
I have been following your vids for over 4 years or more, I think. I have never written before, but I just wanted to say a big thank you to you. I knew pretty much nothing about electronics when I started, but I have replicated some of your work and others and feel that, even though I still don’t quite understand it all, I have come a long way.
I would like to say that I’ve been playing around a lot with the French inverter and found a few interesting things… Cont…
Yes. I have been watching his videos.
Sounds like fun Rusty. Though I have not made any real “gains” as in … “overunity” I stumbled into Lasersabres circuit, essentially several months ago (very similar anyway). Essentially, an SSG light. I managed to illuminate about 100 LEDs off the circuit and played with it extensively, so much, that… I was able to measure overunity. But, then, I took a closer look. Much care is needed in respecting the limits of a DMM in +3kHz. They can lie. ’nuff said tho.
Thanks for that info. I have similar things. That French flip flop inverter that I made awhile back does a pretty good job also with small draw items. This big 750 watt inverter is what I need to run big stuff though like my 120v electric drill and such. It will power up my small ac refridgerator that I have on the sailboat while I am using the diesel inboard to get around when there is no wind. Usually when I go to Catalina Island I have to power so I run the fridge on the way.
Lid, have you checked out kdkinens lastest radiant circuit. Interestingly low amp draw it seems.
Similar to a lot of sorts of tests I do. I have found, thus far, watt for watt.. my best two options are a fast switching mode inverter, the type you stuff in a cigarette lighter. On sale for $10. It consumes 140 mA plugged in, just at idle. It consumes 140 mA plugged in, while powering a 2 watt AC LED bulb. Running a close second to that is a XEE2vids CT transformer variant of the joule thief, but operating off of a 3.6V 4000 mA/h Lithium cell. It powers the same bulb at an adjustable .1-.4A.
again,
we can venture to other possibilities … I think going back to Joule Ringer 1 is still my bestb bet as I can expand using toroid and charge back a little when the load is off
please try the Xee2 mode using transformer koule Ringer 1 but like you said heat issues
on the transistor
totoalas
Some things are designed to run on 120vac (like a small microwave oven) and that forces us to use the inverter. You are right though that there are many things that can simply use a 12 battery as the source of power. LED lighting is perfect for that.
(similar to what you and @piratetwinbeard were discussing)
Thanks for your tireless devotion & sharing – big fan of your vids! I haven’t sacrificed an LED bulb yet – wonder if they can be run DC only (sans AC setup) – bypassing the need for the inverter. Other than most appliances & larger industrial tools, I’ve not seen much that can’t be recharged/run off of 24vDC or less (laptops/tablets, cell phones, mp3 players, cordless tools, etc.) This & inspiration from your joule ringer shed vid makes me think of a permanent solar DC only home circuit!