With four 12-volt/1.5-watt outdoor fixtures: would a 120w transformer use less electricity than a 300w one?
I’m adding lighting to my outdoor steps. For the time being, I’m going to use LED lighting that is 12v/1.5watt each, but in the future I might add some landscape lighting. Does the wattage of the transformer impact the amount of electricity used? That is, if I run these four lights off of a 300 watt transformer, would it use more electricity than if I ran them off of a 120 watt one? I ask not only because I eventually might add to the transformer’s workload, but also because the price difference between the transformers is only $10 and the $300 has better reviews.
Thanks for the info. I suspected as much, but wanted confirmation. As for the LED bulbs, the webpage (https://www.socallighting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SRS-502LED) that I’d be ordering the lights from doesn’t specify if they have a rectifier, but I thought boyonet sockets had them built in. Anyone know if that’s the case?
The wattage rating of the transformer is the maximum power that can be served from the transformer.
However, all things being equal, a transformer will be more efficient when it is operated close to its design rating. You are looking at an initial load of 18 watts. How much power will you need to serve if you add the landscape lighting?
We can tell from the information you provided if the 120w and 300w transformers have similar designs. If they do, then a 120w transformer serving 18 watts of real load will have lower losses than a 300w transformer serving the same load. Obviously, if the transformers have significantly different designs, then we can’t arrive at any conclusions. But in either case, I suspect that the actual losses will be so small that it won’t really matter.
So the real questions are:
- how much load will you need to serve if you go ahead with the landscape lighting?
- how likely are you to take that step?
I think I would probably choose the 300w transformer to provide more flexibility for future loads – the $10 difference is probably not significant. After all, the cost/labor involved in installing it will be the same.
Evolution LED Light 120w 1G [20K] Episode 27 pt. 1
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