Cooler rooms => cooler ambient temps ...

Hi, all. With summer here, I thought I'd bring up an oft-neglected facet of cooling. Changing your lightbulbs from standard incadescent bulbs (standard) to CFL (compact flourescent lights, say by GE or Phillips) can cut down on the amount of heat they emit in the form of heat.

For example, I'm using a lamp with two 100W bulbs in it to light my room. That's 200W of heat and light being emitted into the room, which adds to the overall ambient temp, raises case temps, etc.

I replaced them by the equivalent CFL bulbs by GE. They draw 26W each and emit the same amount of light. (Even after over an hour or so of use, they're cool enough to grab by hand and unscrew.)

So, count on roughtly 1/4 of the heat output due to lighting in your room. Also, count on 1/4 less energy use, for a net savings on your electric bill, and they usually last for at least 2-3 years per bulb.

A relatively easy way to ease down the temps and make your place more comfortable and energy-efficient. If you don't AC in your computer room (like me), it can make all the difference!!

-- Paul

Ya know your right...... my house is cooler so far after replacing all the lights w/ ge 26w bulbs!
Spyder

The Spyder said:

Ya know your right...... my house is cooler so far after replacing all the lights w/ ge 26w bulbs!
Spyder

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Cute. Of course it's not earth-shattering. But the name of the game is 1C better here, 1C better there. If you can save some money on energy in the long run, all the better.

Please try not to be so cynical. The forums are intended to be more positive than this. -- Paul

EDIT: Consider it this way: 300W PSU (max) + 29.9W CPU (max) + 10W gfx (approx) + 10W misc = 350W, vs 200W constant lighting. The lighting accounts for more than a third of the max power usage and roughly that much of the heat production.

Or look at it this way: the amount of electricity you save can be put to use by having another computer Crunching Seti or Folding

Every little bit CAN help: I have one light over my desk, and its off more than on.

And my basement is HEATED pretty well year round by the rigs down there. No lights at all.

rogerdugans said:

Or look at it this way: the amount of electricity you save can be put to use by having another computer Crunching Seti or Folding

Every little bit CAN help: I have one light over my desk, and its off more than on.

And my basement is HEATED pretty well year round by the rigs down there. No lights at all.

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Good call! It still amazes me when I walk into the room and the temp rises by 5-7C.

Thanks for your post, rogerdugans! -- Paul

yes, thats correct, it was kind nice in the winter, my computer was my heater for my room!, i had no heat going up here i shut the ducts and let my computer heat the room, it was always 5degrees over the rest of the house! it was nice...

but about the bulbs, im gonna tell my p'z to get me a few to replace....

maskedgeek said:

yes, thats correct, it was kind nice in the winter, my computer was my heater for my room!, i had no heat going up here i shut the ducts and let my computer heat the room, it was always 5degrees over the rest of the house! it was nice...

but about the bulbs, im gonna tell my p'z to get me a few to replace....

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Is that Willmar, MN?

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of winter here in Minneapolis, but it was nice that whenever the room temp got above 75, I could just open the window for a few minutes and instantly chill the place.

The bulbs won't make a spectacular difference, but should help. In my case, they were especially helpful because we only have a single window AC unit (in another room). In our hallway, where there's essentially no airflow, you would walk under the lights and feel the temp go up noticably. Needless to say, I was really surprised!

Well, ttyl -- Paul

Lights?! Who ever uses lights?! Just stick a few PC monitors on the ceiling. j/k

I almost never use a light in my room. When I do, it is a tiny 40w desk lamp. I have 2 computer monitors, the desk lamp, and if it still isn't bright enough, the 19" TV goes on...

msmasitti said:

Lights?! Who ever uses lights?! Just stick a few PC monitors on the ceiling. j/k

I almost never use a light in my room. When I do, it is a tiny 40w desk lamp. I have 2 computer monitors, the desk lamp, and if it still isn't bright enough, the 19" TV goes on...

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That's my way to work!

Actually, back in the old days (still in the dorms back then), I had a TV PCI card (by the defunct STB). I'd still a small window of CNN headline news in the top corner while working on stuff. It was pretty nice! -- Paul

yes its willmar minnesota, i hate the winters....

but go here check out the minnesota thread

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=89759&goto=newpost

masked..: And are you gonna say this to your parents; "Hey, I need CFL bulbs so I can lower my ambient a bit, could you please buy some for me??"

maskedgeek said:

yes its willmar minnesota, i hate the winters....

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I hear ya'. Thanks for the link. Well, I'm not a Minnesota native, so I didn't quite catch everything in that thread ...

Thanks -- entertaining reading. -- Paul

kev82 said:

masked..: And are you gonna say this to your parents; "Hey, I need CFL bulbs so I can lower my ambient a bit, could you please buy some for me??"

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eh, prob not

macklin01 said:

Cute. Of course it's not earth-shattering. But the name of the game is 1C better here, 1C better there. If you can save some money on energy in the long run, all the better.

Please try not to be so cynical. The forums are intended to be more positive than this. -- Paul

EDIT: Consider it this way: 300W PSU (max) + 29.9W CPU (max) + 10W gfx (approx) + 10W misc = 350W, vs 200W constant lighting. The lighting accounts for more than a third of the max power usage and roughly that much of the heat production.

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yes, the heat from the cup and graphics card are probably right, but the rating on the side of the psu is for the energy used, not just heat. you are probably looking at between 10 and 20 watts for a powersupply.

the overclocker said:

yes, the heat from the cup and graphics card are probably right, but the rating on the side of the psu is for the energy used, not just heat. you are probably looking at between 10 and 20 watts for a powersupply.

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Good point. I couldn't come up with any reliable figures on the PSU and tried to give an outright max. (Of course, if that were occuring, the PSU would be 100% inefficient, using all the power for heat and none for the CPU ! )

Any idea what percentage of a 100W bulb goes into light and what goes into heat? They're ghastly inefficient, so I'm thinking a larger part of that is heat ...

Thanks for your response -- it's been very interesting! -- paul

Good call. I've always prefered the harsh white light of flourescents to the soft light of incandescent. Mainly cause I only have the lights on to work on my computer, and the white light lights it up better than yellow. ;-)

If I'm not working on my computer, then the only light is my monitor, which is plenty to do anything else by.

Thelemac said:

Good call. I've always prefered the harsh white light of flourescents to the soft light of incandescent. Mainly cause I only have the lights on to work on my computer, and the white light lights it up better than yellow. ;-)

If I'm not working on my computer, then the only light is my monitor, which is plenty to do anything else by.

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Hey, thanks, Thelemac.

Actually, the newer CFL bulbs aren't so harsh and feel pretty much like incadescent bulbs, except they're whiter and cooler.

And yeah, unless I'm doing scratch work on my proofs or algorithms, I like to turn the lights off, too. Since I have no mouse to worry about looking for, it works especially well.

On the earlier topic, I thought of a crude way to estimate how much heat the traditional bulbs give off. It's crude, though.

Okay, let's go with a 60W bulb. Approximately 850 lumens of light. An equivalent CFL bulb (approx 900 lumens) uses 15W. Let's assume the bulb is really inefficient and only uses 5W for light, 10W wasted as heat. Then that means it takes about 5W to make 800-900 lumens of light. (Again, this is very, very crude.) So of the 60W of the traditional bulb, 5W is light, 55W is waste heat.
Now, let's be more generous. Suppose the traditional bulb is 30W heat, 30W light. Well, that's the same amount of heat given off by my processor at peak usage. Takes 2 to get decent lighting.

-- Paul