House Hold Power at Outlet.

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Electric heaters always have an energy efficiency of 3.413 B.T.U.s per watt hour, regardless of the design. It doesn't matter whether you are talking about a 4 watt night light bulb or a multi-killowatt electric furnace.

Creating a system that has hot rooms and cold rooms is a source of wastefulness, but that is called bad design, not due to variation of the power line voltage.
 
Last edited:

PatM

Joined Dec 31, 2010
86
I save on buying new incandescent lamps that are used in my basement recessed light fixtures.
These are the ones that have a glass panel in front of the lamp.

I buy 100w 130v lamps which give less light when run at 120v
These are not frosted lamps, but the frosted glass in the fixture takes care of the visual difference.

Normal 100W Soft White lamp:
Light output 1690 lumens
Energy used 100w
Life 750 hours

130v clear lamp run at 120v:
Light output 925 lumens
Energy used 88w
Life 14000 hours

The main reason I am doing this is that 100w 120v lamps are no longer sold in the US
By switching to the 130v lamps that last 14000 hours, my little stash of 130v lamps will last me for a long time and ultimately save me a lot of replacement costs
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
Are you really prepared to claim that a light bulb gets brighter with lower voltage? Please reconsider.
Okay, I've reconsidered.

When the guy goes from a place with 105V to a place with 125V, I still expect the same light bulb to get brighter.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
The point I was trying to make is the higher the voltage the less current needed to do the same work.
I believe this is exactly why much of the rest of the world uses higher domestic voltages - you need a lot less copper in your wires for a given power load.
 

alim

Joined Dec 27, 2005
113
This is NOT correct.

After a brief settling period, the resistance of the bulb's filament is basically a log function of the voltage across it. When you increase the voltage, the resistance increases. It does not remain the same.
I did not intend to go into all the changes of resistance that occur when the voltage changes, but used the example I gave to illustrate a point. That is why I asked to ignore the cold resistance. The point I made could not have been made effectively if all the variations were introduced.
 
Top