GU10 LEDs appear to use more power

Hi I just bought 6 x GU10 LED bulbs, the which award winners from June 2014.

I have a large extension that has 2 banks of 6 lights 12 in total.

I have replaced 6 with the new GU10 5.3w LEDs however the following is happening.

With no lights on my usage power meter says I am using .48kw.....I turn on the new bank of LEDs and that jumps to 1.48kw.

Doing the same test with the other bank of 6 Halogen GU10s I get the following;

No lights on background usage is .48kw turn on the bank of non LED GU10s and it jumps to .74kw

Any ideas ????

Comments

  • hp4020
    hp4020 Posts: 28
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    Ok removed one of the new LED GU10s and put a halogen in and the bank of 5 LEDs + 1 Halogen now only raises the usage to .59kw ???
  • Ectophile
    Ectophile Posts: 7,276
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    There's something odd there. It would take a vast number of LEDs to consume 1kW.

    One problem you may have is that the "power factor" of many new energy efficient lights is very poor. This leads to the strange effect where turning on the lights increases the current drawn quite a lot, but the increase in power as measured by the main electricity meter is a lot less (perhaps only half as much increase). If your energy monitor assumes that (current x 230) = power, then it could be over-reading.

    It's difficult to explain the effect of power factor without getting very techy.
    If it sticks, force it.
    If it breaks, well it wasn't working right anyway.
  • It's almost certainly a power factor problem.

    The halogen bulbs will be purely resistive - power factor 1:
    0.74kW-0,48kW = 0.26kW or just over 43W per bulb.

    The LED bulbs have a built-in switch-mode power controller and this will almost certainly be taking current out of phase with the voltage. If your energy monitor is one of the simpler type (eg a clip-on monitor) it will only measure the current being taken and not take into account the phase of the voltage waveform. Your import electric meter will give the correct results as it is a true watt-hour meter. If your import meter is one which has a flashing LED to show the power taken, you should find that there is little difference in the flash rate with or without the LED lamps turned on.

    As an example my of how wrong a 'simple' energy monitor can be, my PV inverter is rated at less than 0.5W in stand-by but my energy monitor says it's using 69W!

    (I see Ectophile has already mentioned this)

    Dave F
    Solar PV System 1: 2.96kWp South+8 degrees. Roof 38 degrees. 'Normal' system
    Solar PV System 2: 3.00kWp South-4 degrees. Roof 28 degrees. SolarEdge system
    EV car, PodPoint charger
    Lux LXP 3600 ACS + 6 x 2.4kWh Aoboet LFP 2400 battery storage. Installed Feb 2021
    Location: Bedfordshire
  • hp4020
    hp4020 Posts: 28
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    Thanks.

    Could it be connected to the fact that I have a dimmer in the circuit, the GU10s are non dimmable but it is in its maximum position.

    I am going to remove the dimmer tomorrow and replace with standard switch as at some point someone will forget and try and dim the new LEDs.
  • hp4020 wrote: »
    Thanks.

    Could it be connected to the fact that I have a dimmer in the circuit, the GU10s are non dimmable but it is in its maximum position.

    I am going to remove the dimmer tomorrow and replace with standard switch as at some point someone will forget and try and dim the new LEDs.

    I'd definitely remove the dimmer controller. I had a central light with three incandescent bulbs run through a dimmer. When I replaced them with CF lamps they all failed rather dramatically within a few hours, even though the dimmer was set to full power all the time.

    Dave F
    Solar PV System 1: 2.96kWp South+8 degrees. Roof 38 degrees. 'Normal' system
    Solar PV System 2: 3.00kWp South-4 degrees. Roof 28 degrees. SolarEdge system
    EV car, PodPoint charger
    Lux LXP 3600 ACS + 6 x 2.4kWh Aoboet LFP 2400 battery storage. Installed Feb 2021
    Location: Bedfordshire
  • As above - an old dimmer and LED's are not a happy marriage! Even dimmable LED's need care as many dimmers have a minimum power draw that is above the max draw from the lamps. I had this when I put dimmable LED's in a five lamp chandelier type fitting - turned them on, looked away and when I looked back it was doing disco effects. That is because the dimmer was switching them on and off because the power drain was too low for its operating range. The temporary fixe was to put a halogen bulb back in to up the power used until I could swap the dimmer out. I suspect the old dimmer also won't do the LED lamps much good.
    Adventure before Dementia!
  • ChopperST
    ChopperST Posts: 1,257
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    Lightwave RF do a dimmer compatible with LED's we have several.

    If you purchase a wifi link you can control the lights from your smart phone as well.

    Unit is plug and play as long as you are capable of rewiring the switch.

    http://www.megamanuk.com/lightwaverf/products/dimmers/
    http://www.megamanuk.com/lightwaverf/products/jsjslw930/
  • hp4020
    hp4020 Posts: 28
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    Thanks folks for the above

    TBH we dont use the dimmer, so its now gone swapped for regular switch, put the sixth LED GU10 in and tested background usage .28kw tiun on the bank of 6 LEDs and usage goes up to .30kw

    :j :beer:
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