Three Amazing New Energy Saving Devices For the Home You Simply Must Know About

One of the major shortfalls of home energy saving devices of the past was that for the most part, they simply weren't cost effective. Sure the technology was amazing and very heartening to see it come up, but face the facts. In the end, it was always cheaper to just keep on wasting the electricity. Seriously! Who would spend $100 to save $20? It was, to say the least, a very tough sell.

There Was Always the Convenience Issue

At the same time convenience was always an issue. You see, as much as people wanted and in some cases were even willing to pay for these earlier energy saving products for the home, they tended to be bulky and not very easy to apply. What was need were “simple to use” compact solid state devices that could be simply plugged in and used just like an alarm clock.

TV Standby Time Is Like Throwing Away Money While You Sleep

So now check out new affordable compact power saving devices like the new PowerSaver TV standby saver. “Say what!?” “So what on earth does it do to save me money?” OK! Get ready because this happens to be one of the most common sense home energy savers out there. What it does is completely eliminate TV power standby time.

This One Pays For Its self Very Quickly – Then the Rest Is Pure Savings

You see, when your TV is turned off, it is still drawing power to remain active for when the clicker is used to turn it on. Up to 70% of normal operating power is used while your TV is “turned off”! This device plugs into the power outlet and then the TV is plugged into it, completely shutting off all power to your TV. Simply press the on button for the TV on your remote and power is resumed to your TV and it comes on just like normal.

Finally Cheap Replaceable Energy Saving “Curly” Bulbs

Another clever innovation involves those energy saving “screw in light bulbs” with the “curly tubes” that replace normal energy gulping bulbs. They are a fantastic bulb but if you've gone and checked them out at the home supply store, they can be a little pricey. You see, its the complex electrical hardware contained in their base that keeps their cost up. The “curly bulbs” are in fact cheap to manufacture.

Who's the Genius That Thought Of That?!

Some solutions are just too easy and its scary that it took so long for someone to figure them out. You see, now you can buy these energy scrimping bulbs as a two part system. This means that while you do pay for the expensive base as with other bulbs of this type, there is one big difference. That is when the bulb burns out, you simply unplug the “curly bulb section” and plug a new replacement back on the base. You use the base over and over again!

No More Wondering About Appliance Energy Consumption

The third device is one that you will wonder how you have been getting along with one all these years without. Its a small compact energy monitor with an easy to read screen. Simply plug it into the wall socket, then plug “whatever” into it and with a quick glance you can see how much electricity the device is using. Hey! Its great for room-mate situations to settle any questions about energy consumption.

Chris Tyrrell writes for Ecofreak, an environmentally friendly online shop specialising in energy saving products such as the Wattson">http://www.ecofreak.co.uk/products/0/107/Wattson-Energy-Meter.html">Wattson. Visit the website for more details.

The future is bright: the future is LED

The lighting industry has been subject to some major changes in recent years with the continued advancement of the energy saving CFL light bulbs and the decision taken by the EU to outlaw all incandescent bulbs by 2012. Despite all the consternation with CFL bulbs there is one topic that seems to be increasingly interesting: LED light bulbs.

Many lighting experts believe that the future of the lighting industry rests with LED technology. However what are the advantages and disadvantages of LED lighting in its current form? In this article I will detail the history of LED technology and discuss what LED lamps have to offer to the lighting market today.

Originally used in devices such as alpha numerical displays and pocket calculators the LEDs have recently seen successful application in commercial and domestic lighting. Two of the biggest factors that are encouraging consumers to change their lighting to LED are: -

• They are the most energy efficient bulbs on the market today, cutting carbon emissions and reducing energy costs.
• They last longer than any bulbs available on the market, reducing maintenance and energy costs further.

So why isn’t all lighting changing to LED? The initial cost of buying LED products can be daunting for lot of consumers of particularly in the commercial sector, where the quantity of bulbs required is higher. However, when considering the total cost of ownership, LEDs far surpass incandescent and halogen lighting and are starting to threaten CFL bulbs. One of the highest costs involved in producing LED bulbs is heat sinking, without adequate heat protection LEDs can loose life span.

In the early days of domestic LED bulbs one common complaint was the colour of the light produced and the poor light output that was often inadequate to replace halogen spotlights. However, in recent years manufacturers have developed ‘warm white’ coloured LED bulbs, made to replicate traditional bulbs as well as high powered bulbs that incorporate more LEDs into a single circuit board ensuring that the bulbs can match the lumen output of halogen and CFL bulbs.

Another advantage of LED lighting is its short ‘on/off time’, this has lead to many local councils in the UK changing their traffic lights to LEDs, not only making them more efficient but also less maintenance is needed. One disadvantage that has been associated with CFL bulbs is their toxicity, or rather their use of mercury, although this has been accounted for with the WEEE levy (a tax on every bulb to contribute to recycling and disposal charges) this problem does not exist with LED lighting, making it more desirable to the more eco-minded companies and individuals.

At present LED lighting technology lends itself to spotlight bulbs because of the ability to manufacture small circuit boards unlike CFL spotlights that need to be slightly bigger to house the tubing. This is changing though with the production of candle, golfball and even strip-light LEDs by a handful of companies, this is a significant development as it proves LED might, someday, incorporate the whole lighting industry and not stay in its current market as a fringe technology. Although there is still a long way to go for LED technology, public acceptance is pivotal to its success, and considering the massive advantages and the rate of technological advancement, this shouldn’t be difficult to achieve.

Please visit Greenhouse Organisation for all your energy saving light bulbs.

Greenhouse Organisation is the best place to buy your Energy Saving Light Bulbs. Please visit us at www.greenhouseuk.org. We stock traditional bulbs for all your household light fittings including candle bulbs, dimmable bulbs, spotlights, and the latest LED lamps. Use our Energy Saving Calculator to see how much you can slash your energy bills by. We ship Energy Efficient Light Bulbs across the UK.

LED TV - A New Breakthrough in Technology

What is a LED TV

A led TV is an LCD TV that uses LEDs to illuminate the display. There are two ways to do this: either by placing LEDs across the entire back of the display, or by placing LEDs just around the perimeter, which is called an “edge lit” display. Both techniques use less power than plasma TVs and LCD TVs lit with fluorescent tubes.

History of LED TV

LED technology was first used as status and indicator lamps. Over the past six years though, it has been developed to meet general lighting application demands. Samsung is among the first to incorporate light-emitting diodes (LED) into television technology, it is called the LED TV which is now taking the technological world by storm. Samsung uses a term LED TV (light emitting diode television) for describing LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs which utilizes LED Backlighting. LED TV is a controversial term effectively used for the advertisements between Samsung and its competitors. But the complaint of the competitors is, LED TV produces a display of 100% LEDs and which is not compromised in this. LEDs in their current form are much too large to be individual pixels on a conventional television. In order to capture some of the hype around O-LED TVs, Samsung has chosen to brand their LED-lit range of LCD TVs but still except for the Sony XEL-1 they are not commercially available. LED-backlit LCD TVs do differ from conventional LCD TVs in some important areas: 1. LED televisions can produce bright image and deep blacks (doesn’t work for Edge-LED). 2. They can be extremely slim with Edge-LED lighting. 3. LED TV offers lower power consumption. 4. Especially when RGB-LED backlighting is used, LED TV also offers a wider colour gamut.

LED in Television Application

LED technology captures the natural colours of real life with the production of darker blacks, crisp whites, and strong contrast between dark and vivid colours. Samsung also enhanced its LED-powered products with Auto Motion Plus frame interpolation, which effectively reduces image judder and motion blur.

Jonathan Walker is the author of this article about LED TV and LED technology. Jonathan is a graphic designer and a technology expert.