Posts Tagged ‘Save Electricity’
Review of First Alert Motion Sensing Light Socket
This energy saving light socket, made by First Alert, will turn off your light automatically after 4 minutes if no motion is sensed. Also, it will turn on your light when motion is detected and keep it on as long as motion is detected. Installation is simple: Unscrew your current bulb, screw in this socket, and then screw in your bulb into this socket! We use this in our basement by our freezer where I had a light that would go on at the same time as my office light. The alternative to going this route would have been to wire in a new switch, but we had 3 switches already and I did not want a 4th, nor did I want more wiring. This device works great, but the price is a bit steep – $23! Another drawback is that it will not work with low-wattage bulbs such as a 14-watt florescent bulb but requires at least 25 watts. For the time being, I have to use a 60-watt bulb until I obtain a 25 watt florescent. Note that if you use a 14-watt, the light will flicker. From some reviews I have read of the First Alert Motion Sensing Light Socket 
The energy saved is calculated as follows: With my old 14 watt florescent bulb, 140 watt-hours per day were used, assuming 10 hours of "on" time. Now, about 10 watt-hours are used for a (future) 25 watt bulb that will go on about 5 or 6 times for 4 minutes. So about 130 watt-hours are saved per day, or 0.130 kw-hrs per day. Using a rate of about $0.10 per kw-hr, this amounts to $0.013 per day, or about $5 per year in electricity alone. Add the savings of perhaps $2 per year in bulb replacement costs, and the annual savings in my application is $7/year, resulting in a payback period of about 4 years. Not the big savings I hoped for, but a step in the right direction!