Time Lag Switches

When it is cold outside - as it is these days - people start working on their heating system, hot water systems, towel rails, and some even on insulating the house to make sure no heat gets out. We prefer a warm house or office, and we make sure there's plenty of heating either via the underfloor heating system, the wall mounted heaters, the free-standing heating elements, or the towel rails. It is good to be warm, but at the same time it is good to be safe and not waste too much money on electricity or gas. Make sure leaving the lights, heating, or ventilation fan on doesn't make a hole in your pocket! Think about it: have you ever left the heated towel rail on the whole day by mistake? Have you ever switched to the immersion heater and forgot it was on for a while, until the electricity bill shows some serious increase in the kW used? Have you ever forgotten the wall heater or the standing convector heater on for the whole day or night, and then regretted it when the whole house was too hot, or you realize how much this would cost? How a Run Back Timer Switch for Heating can Save you Money There is a need for a switch that would provide a way to save electricity and money, while at the same time the heat would be on. We do need the towel rail to be hot, but we don't need it hot for the whole day. In a school, a community centre, a college, or an office, we need to have hot water and warm heating elements, but they don't need to be ON 24/7. One way to turn them off is to do it manually, but another way is to use a time lag switch. The CP Electronics RBT1, for example, is a high output run back timer taking loads up to 20A, and is great for use with immersion heaters and with towel rails. It has an ON/OFF switch, and it allows you to make sure the heat, ventilation, or lighting load is ON only for 0min - 2h, with 15mins increments. Do you need the heat ON only for 1h? Do you want to make sure the towel rail is not ON the whole day but only 1h or so? You can manually adjust the run back timer to reflect this. And then you can see at any point in time how much time is left for the heating / ventilation / lighting element to be ON. There are quite a few other time delay switches suitable for different needs to save you energy and money - check them out here. Always remember: according to the current regulations, it is not recommended to install any wall mounted switch or any switch that involves touching in the bathroom; pull cord switches are OK, but no other switch is allowed in the bathroom - they all have to be installed outside the bathroom. This is true with the time lag switches, which need to be installed on the wall outside the bathroom. Remember: Installing a Time Delay Switch Combats Forgetting the Lights ON!

Young children can be the blight of the domestic eco-warrior. They forget to turn off the lights when they leave a room. Facts and figures mean very little to them. Not to mention all the electronic toys! A concept design by designer Danny Taylor got us thinking about how we might teach children how to be energy-conscious in a fun way. Rationing Energy with Happy Faces The concept is a rotary dimmer switch with a smiley face on it; when the lights are on, the smiley face is actually a sad face. It's a nice way to reinforce the idea that having the lights on makes something happy, although many professionals dislike the idea of negative reinforcement. As Gizmodo suggests, you could copy this idea at home with a paintable dimmer switch (like this switch from Heritage Brass) and a marker pen. We don't condone intellectual property theft as a general rule, but as this switch is still in the concept stage, it's certainly one solution. Rationing Energy with Other ThingsBut how else could we get the concept of energy management across to children without overloading them with data? There are plenty of resources for classroom teachers, and some guidelines from the Guardian. But what if you're an eco-conscious parent? Well, we have a whole range of domestic energy management devices in our online store, such as occupancy sensors and thermostats for lighting, heating and ventilation. One creative method suggested to us was to connect the shower heater to a time delay switch so that the hot water is only available for a set period of time. This has the unfortunate side-effect that someone may be using the shower when all of a sudden it turns freezing! We haven't actually tried to do this, but we are certain that our parents certainly would have done this to us if the technology had been available at the time. We were going to suggest simply "leading by example," but that's what was suggested to us.Do you have any more ideas about how to teach kids to be energy-conscious? Let us know in the comments! Header image by jenny818 (Creative Commons)

In light of the energy bill increases coming up later this year, here are some lighting tips for saving both energy and money.On one hand, the use of LED lamps drastically reduces the amount of energy one uses at home.On the other hand, there are quite a few things one can do in order to save energy and money, thus reducing the energy bills considerably. Why are the Energy Bills Going up in 2022?By now, everyone knows that, due to a multitude of reasons both nationally and internationally, energy prices are rising, and there's a further rise in energy bills expected later this year.Ofgem put out a press release saying that the price cap will increase by £693 from April, and most homeowners and renters are quite worried about the upcoming winter.The energy crisis is an ongoing shortage of energy across the world, both in the UK and in Europe, and it affects our country very much.Here are the main reasons the energy bills are going up in 2022:The energy crisis: as countries began to recover from the pandemic, demand for gas started to increase and, unfortunately, it could not be met due to a shortage in supply - thus the gas price increased in 2021. This problem was made worse by the renewable sources (wind and solar) which produce less power, and by the cold weather during winter months which forces people to turn their heating up. Russia's invasion of Ukraine threatened supplies and drove up the prices even further since Russia is one of the world's largest producers of oil and gas. Energy companies went bust: some of the energy suppliers in the UK went out of business due to the increase in gas prices. British consumers who had to move from failed energy suppliers are paying more per month because so many energy providers went out of business.The "energy price cap" was introduced in January 2019 by Ofgem because of concerns that many people were paying too much for their energy.Ofgem caps the maximum amount energy suppliers can charge for their energy.This energy cap can is reviewed twice a year, but recently Ofgem decided to review it every three months so that the market may be stabilised.The change, Ofgem says, allows energy companies to adjust bills more quickly in response to the prices they are charged by wholesale suppliers.The record increase in global gas prices - up to 54% - caused not only worries among homeowners but also an increase in energy bills. Buy Ascoli Spots at Sparks6 Lighting Tips for Saving Energy and MoneyAs we are approaching the last half of the year and the long winter nights are coming, especially with the increase in the energy bills, we need to be aware of some things we can do to reduce these bills.There are some simple lighting tips - tips which relate to reducing energy and money spent on lighting - that help us save energy and money. Switch off the lights when you're not using them or you leave the room. This is the simplest tip but the one most easy to forget. If you leave the room, make sure you turn off the light or the lights; don't think that you'll be back in a few minutes - simply switch it off. And make sure you switch off ALL the lights, both the ceiling lights, the wall lights, and the floor lamps or table lamps. It is estimated that you can save as much as £20-40 per year just by switching off the lights.Switch to LED lamps everywhere. You may be surprised to find out that some of your wall lamps, ceiling lights, or table lamps may still use a halogen lamp or an incandescent lamp. We have been advising all our customers to switch to LED wherever possible; now this advice is a must! Even the picture lights which use a special lamp can be switched to LED lamps to reduce energy consumption and save on energy bills.Reduce the number of light fittings that are ON. If you have the ceiling light on, you may not need the table lamp on also; similarly, if you have the table lamp on, why leave the ceiling light on? Though you may use LED lamps in all your light fittings, the energy consumption of these light fittings add up, so it is advisable to reduce the number of light fittings you use. Install a time delay switch for light fittings in the hallway or corridor. A time delay switch allows the light to be on for a set amount of time, after which the light is turned off automatically. This is for corporate areas such as staircases, hallways, etc. A time lag switch can help you save energy and money, thus reducing your energy bills. Use PIR sensors or Timers for outdoor lights. We advise purchasing outdoor lights with PIR (presence detector) and/or using timers for the outdoor light fittings. It is quite a waste of energy and money to leave the front door light on the whole night, no matter how energy-saving the light bulb may be. Why not install a PIR wall lamp or a PIR flood light as security lights outdoor? These will turn on only when presence is detected, and they will be off the rest of the time, thus saving energy and money. Consider using transparent shades and clean the shades. Table lamps and pendant lights offer nice, diffused light, and we love the ambience they create. However, if the shade is quite dark, there needs to be a higher wattage lamp being used, which costs more. Why not switch to a more transparent shade to save more energy and money off your bills? And don't forget to clean your lamp shads regularly so that light may shine bright and not be blocked by dust and other impurities. Buy Slim CCT LED FloodlightConclusion and ReferencesThere are many more specific tips on reducing the lighting bill at home, and there is a long list of tips on reducing energy at the office or in commercial environments.However, the above six tips are the simplest tips for reducing the lighting bill, and we all can do them without investing too much.At Sparks, we offer a wide range of LED lamps and LED lights to help you reduce energy consumption.To see them for yourself, visit us either online or at our lighting showroom in North London. Further references on the energy crisis and reducing your lighting bill:BBC article on the energy crisis: what is the energy price cap, how might the bills go up, the energy price cap forecast, using smart meters, the fuel bill breakdown, and how this affects us; also, how to get help with the bills. Tips on saving energy and lighting - reducing the lighting bills.Ofgem press release: Price cap to increase by £693 from April.Energy Saving Trust article on, Why are energy bills going up?Factcheck: why are the energy bills going up? (via channel 4)Bright ideas to save energy and money (via energy label).