I have plenty of ZigBee devices, zigbee smart lights , LED strips with zigbee controllers, and this is causing a high standby power usage just being idle.
I’ve calculated and even in anual price would be significant.
Have you found any solution to this?
Llfx bulbs draw 0.7W in standby.
That’s about $0.40 a day for all of my 78 bulbs.
My Fibaro dimmers draw 0.6W
It quite irritating that they draw so much but I calculate the running costs based on 3hrs per bulb per day (the rest of the time drawing the 0.6W) the annual costs (including bulb depreciation) are about (it varies by bulb model used (they are all Ikea ledare though)) 1/12 th what the old tungsten filament bulbs cost.
My wife also leaves lights on by default, all my lights have timers set for turn off at ‘reasonable’ durations for the room in use.
In the first year of home automation (and changing bulbs) my electricity usage fell by 23 % my gas usage fell by 21% (though I need to keep an eye on that as it may just have been a warm year)
It’s not just the bulbs that have to be smart, you have to be too
So…, you’re talking of more than $140 a year. Quite a bit I’d say…
LED power supplies (I have 13) consume almost 2W in standby, plus of the smart bulbs.
That’s why I’m looking for a solution. I was thinking of a Circuit Breaker and turn off all the lighting circuit of the home while away, and turn on when coming back.
But maybe there is a simpler solution.
Not when you consider power here costs $2400 to $3600 a year.
I’m happy to pay 5% for the convenience. And as Mutt pointed out, automating the lights may actually save you money.
Yeah, that’s right. But if there is a way to save it, why not do it?
We’re talking about automating, so…,. why not finding a way to automate and save as much as possible idle power that doesn’t provide anything?
When you are away, what’s the point?
However, I’m not talking about your particular scenario, but rather looking for a solution for that problem.
Any ideas?
Automated lights to make it look like someone is home - as theft prevention.
Still could do it when needed, just turn it on when needed.
Ok, it’s not for me but good luck with your search.
If you are going to add a smart switch to switch off the light then you have not saved anything.
Out of curiosity, what does the computer consume running HA per year?
I’m thinking of using a smart switch for the whole lighting, not just for one device. It may consume 1-2W, and save around 30-40W.
And the computer with RPi, yes, it consumes something. Not much, but something.
The problem with this approach and extending it further into power circuits (those switches consume too) is that your current distribution may not be suited to it.
I have 9 rcdo breakers (which exclude the main incoming breaker and the spd breaker.
So, I’d have to install contactors following those 9 breakers and have smart switches control them. That’s 9 extra smart switches which will consume all the time AND the contactors take 3 or 4 W when on ? (you may get smaller contactors but we’re not just talking relays here).
Also I use any installed extractor fan (lighting circuits) as part of my cooling (admittedly that shouldn’t run when you are not home but there are knock on effects to consider.)
All in this is a lot of work and the payback is not worth the present worth calculation.
My 19 lights at 0.6W currently cost me £12.08 a year, your power must cost a bomb.
Oh yeah and the lights form the backbone of my mesh network.
@jd1900 I have also been troubled by this, and the solution I’m pursuing is indeed via using smart switches SMNP controlled via NodeRED:
However, there are issues. While the GS728TP has sixteen 802.3af rated ports (max o/p 15Watts) plus 8 802.3af+ rated ports (max o/p 30Watts), its total power budget capability is only 192Watts. So obviously not every port can be one controlling a LED light fitting. And, while there are relatively inexpensive PoE splitters available many of these do not have the power capability to drive a LED above 20Watts.
Still 20Watts of LED illumination these days is quite a few lumens.
Alternatively I’m looking to flashing these 10Watt capable PoE devices:
How are the lights wired when looking at main circuit breakers?
That would be the location to make single switch turn off lots of stuff. But it probably is pretty safe to guess that there probably are fridges and similar appliances wired under same circuit breakers that will not handle shutting down power for longer perioids nicely.
I noticed something interesting with my dimmers. I have Inovelli dimmers and a couple of them have the internal relay disabled and are paired with Inovelli RGB bulbs. These dimmers consume significantly MORE energy when they are off than when they are on. I’m at a loss to explain it.
Eh ?
I don’t understand you show the same light, both instances ‘on’ yet 1.7 and 4.2 W
Where is it off ?
I highlighted the state of the light that is actually turning on/off (light.dining_room_rgb_light). With the internal relay turned off the dimmer controls the smart bulb but the actual dimmer switch is always on so you always have control of your smart bulb. One of the great features of the Inovelli dimmers and switches. In my case, when I turn the RGB bulb on, the power usage of the dimmer switch goes from 4.2W to 1.7W when the brightness is set to 149 (the default on brightness). If I turn the brightness to 255 with the RGB bulb on it goes to 9.1W.
But still, with the RGB bulb off, one would think less power would be consumed than with it on at any brightness.
