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I've been shifting to LED light bulbs due to the energy savings but I've a question about the new smart bulbs that are controllable via Alexa etc.

These need to be kept "on" via the switch for them to respond to Alexa / Google etc. So what's the parasitic consumption and does it anywhere close to kill the energy savings advantage?

I mean say I use a smart LED bulb for 6 hours a day then during that time period the energy savings of LED kick in. But during the remaining 18 hours of the day when the light is in an "off" state but yet the smart bulb is essentially energized what is the power consumption? Somehow that does not seem to be reported anywhere. Is it negligible say compared to the 10 W LED "on" state consumption?

Any data?

Clarification: This isn't about being green for greens sake. If the power consumption is only a fraction of a Watt I've no interest in saving it. My question was mainly with the intention of figuring out whether it is a fraction of a Watt.

curious_cat
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2 Answers2

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The specs are out there, just not always so easy to find. For example, one Philips Hue is rated at 9.5W with max. standby of 0.2W. (Click "The bulb" on the right side under Technical Specifications).

Using this bulb as an example, if it actually uses the full 0.2W all the time, 18H x 365D x 0.2W = 1,314 Wh per year. If your electricity costs 0.10/kWh, that's 13 cents per year for the 18 hours of standby vs. $2.08 for the 6 hours of light.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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This is splitting hairs... The concept of "grey energy" for powering of parasitic devices is severely overblown. You cannot just shut down a power generation plant, the plant ITSELF is a "parasitic load" on the grid if nobody is using that energy. So worrying about fractions of a watt, even spread across the entire planet, is an exercise in futility compared to the major change from incandescent vs LED spread across the planet.

Besides, if YOU are worried about it, get off of your keister and walk over to the lamp to turn it off rather than having Alexa do it for you. Saves energy AND gets you some real exercise. Of course in getting up and walking to the lamp, you burn calories and raise your body temperature, which increases the room temperature, so when it's warm outside your air conditioning must work that much harder to remove that heat, consuming more energy, probably more than the smart bulb would have.

Ergo, the best method of saving energy is to sit still in the dark all day doing nothing...

Ross Presser
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JRaef
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