Which colour lights use most power?

wildebus

wildebus

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The Answer? ALL of them :D or to be more exact, ALL of them when they are all on :)

I decided to do some power monitoring (me? nah!) and found something that is actually pretty obvious when you think about it.
So I fitted a multicoloured LED Strip under the Awning on my Motorhome and it is pretty funky I think

But as well as flashing and colour sequences, you can just have it on and set to any colour you like as well of course.
However when you look at the strips, you see that there are Red LEDs, Green LEDs and Blue LEDs (i.e. RGB. sound familiar?). And if you set the strip to say WHITE, you get ALL the LEDs on, and they all take power. But if you set the colour specifically to Red, Green or Blue, you only get 1/3rd of the LEDs powered, and a saving on power (y)
Choose a colour mix - Orange, Purple, Violet, or whatever, and you get 2/3rds of the LEDs powered - so more power used, but not as much as White.

On my Strip of around 3.5M length, the difference between selecting White and selecting Red, Green or Blue is 12W. That adds up, if on all the time, to upto 20Ah a day - a fair amount really (and note that is just the EXTRA power draw by choosing White, not the power use of the light Strip).
So if you have a light strip and like to leave it on, or maybe flashing and colour changing, leaving it on a single colour - or changing just between the three primary colours rather than switching mixed colours will cut down on power use :D
Also reducing the brightness has an effect on power use as you would think, but not as much as not using White.
 
wildebus said:
The Answer? ALL of them :D or to be more exact, ALL of them when they are all on :)

I decided to do some power monitoring (me? nah!) and found something that is actually pretty obvious when you think about it.
So I fitted a multicoloured LED Strip under the Awning on my Motorhome and it is pretty funky I think

But as well as flashing and colour sequences, you can just have it on and set to any colour you like as well of course.
However when you look at the strips, you see that there are Red LEDs, Green LEDs and Blue LEDs (i.e. RGB. sound familiar?). And if you set the strip to say WHITE, you get ALL the LEDs on, and they all take power. But if you set the colour specifically to Red, Green or Blue, you only get 1/3rd of the LEDs powered, and a saving on power (y)
Choose a colour mix - Orange, Purple, Violet, or whatever, and you get 2/3rds of the LEDs powered - so more power used, but not as much as White.

On my Strip of around 3.5M length, the difference between selecting White and selecting Red, Green or Blue is 12W. That adds up, if on all the time, to upto 20Ah a day - a fair amount really (and note that is just the EXTRA power draw by choosing White, not the power use of the light Strip).
So if you have a light strip and like to leave it on, or maybe flashing and colour changing, leaving it on a single colour - or changing just between the three primary colours rather than switching mixed colours will cut down on power use :D
Also reducing the brightness has an effect on power use as you would think, but not as much as not using White.
Click to expand...
Have been looking at Helian tape light, which sounds very similar but a bit less power draw, but can be run off a USB socket or power source.
 
wildebus said:
On my Strip of around 3.5M length, the difference between selecting White and selecting Red, Green or Blue is 12W.
Click to expand...

A bit of algebra revels that each color is 6W which is the same as a typical LED awning light.
 
r4dent said:
A bit of algebra revels that each color is 6W which is the same as a typical LED awning light.
Click to expand...
Yup. But it something that you wouldn't consider initially.

There is also the other factor of brightness that can be considered as well and used to balance power draw vs light :)
 
I've got to be honest ....
I think IF you have to worry about what colour lights you are using power wise ...

You possibly need to look long and hard at your power systems .
 
mistericeman said:
I've got to be honest ....
I think IF you have to worry about what colour lights you are using power wise ...

You possibly need to look long and hard at your power systems .
Click to expand...
Information is good.

I looked at this today out of curiosity as I noticed last night via VRM that my power draw was a around 2A more than I would have expected. And I was pretty sure it was due to me turning on the Awning Strip in advertently from the house Alexa Echo :)
The colours bit made me think as I was looking at a couple of rolls of strip lights and seeing how different strips are made.
 
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