Saving electricity for lighting: How to calculate energy consumption
Created: 09/28/2022, 15:15
By: Kilian Bäuml
Lightbulb with energy label © Rhombur
Saving energy is currently the goal of many households.
This way you can calculate your energy consumption so that you don't have a rude awakening.
Frankfurt - Electricity prices are rising.
So many consumers want to save energy – but what is the best way to do this?
First of all, it makes sense to calculate your own electricity consumption.
Based on this, efficient measures can be taken.
In order to be able to calculate the energy consumption uniformly, it is important to know the units and to be able to calculate with them.
Here you find out how this works.
Save electricity with lighting: Calculate consumption in watts
The power consumption of lamps can be easily calculated.
For this you need three variables:
1. The
wattage
of your bulb or LED
2. The
daily duration
of use
3.
Total usage time
(days)
the
Power is multiplied by the hours the bulb was used per day.
This value is in turn multiplied by the days used, as the science
magazine scinexx.de
also explains in a sample calculation.
Sample calculation:
As an example, consider a 60-watt conventional light bulb that is lit for five hours every day for one month (30 days).
60 x 5 = 300 ;
300 x 30 = 9,000
This means that the example light bulb consumes 9000 watts per month.
As a rule, however, the electricity providers do not state the electricity on their bill in watts, but in kilowatts.
In order to calculate how expensive the electricity consumption of a light bulb is, the consumption must therefore be converted into kilowatts.
1000 watt hours correspond to 1 kilowatt hour.
In the example given, the light bulb consumes 9 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month.
This calculation also works for all other electronic devices in your household.
To calculate the cost based on your consumption, you need to multiply the amount you pay per kWh by your consumption.
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An example calculation for this:
Let's say a kWh costs 0.40 euros and we multiply it by the 9 kWh of the example light bulb.
The bulb costs 9 x 0.40 = 3.60 euros per month
Calculated per month, you need to multiply this value by the number of light bulbs.
Let's say you have five of these lightbulbs in your household, all of which are used equally.
The five lightbulbs cost 5 x 3.60 = 18 euros per month
Why are so many people switching to LED?
In recent years, LEDs have become increasingly popular - especially when it comes to energy saving potential.
One of the reasons for this is that they hardly give off any energy in the form of heat.
In addition, the LEDs require very little maintenance.
They only need to be changed very rarely and have a long service life.
According to
scinexx.de
, an LED can last up to 17 years despite eight hours of daily use.
If light bulbs are replaced by LEDs, attention is now no longer paid to the consumption in watts, but to the lumen.
Watt and lumen are in a linear relationship, but this depends on the type of light source selected, writes the
consumer center energy advice.
What is the difference between lumens and watts?
Lumen indicates the brightness of the light source.
You can use this information to compare the different degrees of brightness of the lamps.
The consumer
advice center writes that a particularly high lumen value (lm) is particularly bright
and, as an example for classification, writes that the conventional 60-watt light bulb has a value of 700 lm.
The two terms mean something different.
Watt denotes the consumption/power and lumen denotes the brightness of the selected illuminant.
Basically, the higher the lumen, the more efficient the energy conversion.
With a high lumen, energy can be saved accordingly.
In the meantime, an energy label is often printed on the lamps, on which performance and consumption are classified.
This helps consumers to choose a model that is suitable for saving electricity at first glance.
(Kilian Baeuml)
