i've asked for a few lighting proposal.
here's the one that really makes sense and i really like:


converted to visio for easy understanding:


the PDF is attached. pardon the missing right side wall. my pdf printer is stupid. it's free so yeah.
 Visio_electrical_wiring.pdf ( 97.83k ) Number of downloads: 38

bought some LED lights and your normal CFL lights to check for their efficiency and light output.




i don't trust manufacturer specs, especially those from shady brands like these oxyone lights. so bought the ones that my wife really like to do an actual measurement.
the oxyone leds are rated for 18w, compared against phillips 18w, phillips 11w and panasonic 18w.

also bought these ge10 and mr16 small led lights to measure their power efficiency and light output.



i did my phd in energy efficiency so yes it's a major consideration.

opting for 100w energy usage for wall light, garden light, flood light and any other lights turned on during sleep time. makes no sense to put all those nice nice mood & outdoor lighting only to be turned off most of time because they're too expensive to run.
100w x 10 hours everyday from 9pm-7am x 30 day = 30kw = RM9 to run every month. ngam ngam budget haha

it is, but i still don't have any good method of measuring the light output. haven't researched how manufacturers carry out their measurement to come up with their lumens per watt rating.

i do have access to a lux meter, but need to build a makeshift reflector to channel the light and avoid diffraction. so for now it's just relative comparison when the room lights are turned off and the sample lamps turned upwards to light the ceiling.

nice to see another engineer. the led lights are freakin simple to construct. can even build ourselves DIY style.

i've read that them Autoclaved aerated concrete-AAC have some sort of health issue? got a thread before this discussing the aac building material.
searched the net and found there's a sort of lawsuit regarding aac. no idea if the same issue is apparent in malaysia since i've seen a couple of building in my area built using something that resembles an aac block.

there's just the master bedroom wall that's gonna heat up from the evening sun. thinking of adding a sunshading wall later if the heat buildup is too much. quite sceptical of adopting aac after reading about the issues.

it serves as a rough guideline, but the actual light efficacy have to be measured since not all LED have the same efficacy.
manufacturing process, material used, the housing, etc etc all have a direct effect to the light output. i got a friend that's from the industry, worked till senior engineer post at a japanese company manufacturing led solutions before resigning. detailed explanation from him till get earbleed.

anyway the ROI is just too long. kindda not worth to implement the entire house with LED. at some parts of the house it's more logical and cheaper to use cfl.

roof insulation is integrated. i'm gonna use monier's bubble wrap roof insulation system just after the roof tile, with an air gap of 1-2 inch. that should provide the best possible insulation for the roof.

i've came across a study on roof insulation and bubble wrap with an air gap is indeed the best possible way to get the highest heat attenuation. monier have another double layer bubble wrap called super r or something like that. no idea if it's available locally.
the current quotation is for the monier roof with bubble wrap insulation and air gap.

must consider roof insulation since electricity costs isn't coming down. after all, the difference isn't by much. i'm even considering of adding another bubble wrap layer (or a few more layer) laid on top of the plaster ceiling to further attenuate heat transfer from above. only problem is the FIRE HAZARD haha.

to improve ventilation inside the roof structure, i'm gonna use these ceiling panels for the outside:



i actually have this:

so i visit friend's house, other peoples house, house in construction and measured their ceiling temperature. haha
some using high roof, low roof, metal deck, metal deck with insulation, asbestos ceiling, plaster ceiling, low pitch, high pitch, no ceiling, roof tile, etc etc.
with this little device it's all scientific and require no guesstimation

it's quite late. till next time.

this is what i measured for the oxyone 18w led.
this is the product:

sorry i thought it's rated for 18w power, but the spec says it's 16w.


252.2 VAC = 178.36 Vrms * 0.1107 = 19.74W

actual DC power sent to the LEDs after conversion:

26V * 0.4890 A = 12.71W
efficiency of the DC converter = 12.71/19.74 = 64.38%
meaning it's freaking low. nearly 20W ac power sent, only 12.7w dc are received by the LED.

comparing the light output versus the 18w CFL from phillips and panasonic, i say these LEDs are on average ~15% brighter compared to the CFL.
is it worth it? probably not, considering it's gonna be a hassle to maintain them if should the LED driver malfunction after a few years. as with any electronics, it's not gonna last forever.

the oxyone leds says on the box that they're rated for 120lm/w efficacy. verry hard to believe since on average the actual led chips have 100lm/w efficacy at best. on DC power.

say you get an 18W led. that 18w is rated on AC.
18w * 65% efficient dc conversion = 11.7w of dc power. so at best you're gonna have 1170 lumens from it.

remember this small led lights?
supposed to be 9w (3 led) and 12w (4 led), epistar chip.


actual measurements.
9w:

12w:

which makes the efficiency of the 9w at 42.5% and the 12w efficiency at 46.5%
not the led efficacy mind you, but the DC conversion efficiency.

it's freaking low. waste of electricity.
even if the epistar is capable of 100lm/w, the dc conversion efficiency pulled it down. say you get 300 lumen from the 6.56w ac input, the lumen per watt is only 45.73 lm/w.
for the 4 led chip, say you get 400 lumen from 8.64w ac input, the actual output would only be 46.3 lumen/w

lower than even the cheap 11w phillips CFL that i have which is rated for 54 lumen/watt.

install LED to save energy huh?

you could measure the current draw using a clamp meter or directly tap into the power line.
or use a wattmeter, which is in a way better because it provides the power factor reading.

power factor reading is needed to calculate the actual power usage, but some older tnb meters doesn't consider the power factor in calculating the power usage.
as far as i know, the newer tnb digital meter charges you in actual power usage by calculating the power factor while the older analog meter only calculate VA rating.

to improve the efficiency, we could bypass the led driver like what you did and run them purely on DC using a high efficiency SMPS power supply. that should pump the conversion efficiency to over 80%. downside is there's no current limit and we're limiting the light output that we could extract from the led using this method.

or replace the led driver with better drivers from mean well. they have some pretty high quality drivers which is rated for upwards of 80% efficiency. from experience working with their SMPS, their products are pretty high quality rivalling those expensive unit. and their rated spec is pretty much spot on without any bloated artificial number.
i've opened quite a number of (expensive) equipment and not surprised to see the power supply from mean well in them. downside is that the choices is pretty limited. there's no peculiar current limit like 600mA, 125mA, 480mA and the such.

read below your posts and finally understood when you typed 6w. you corroborate my findings. the AC-DC converter that the LED lights are using have pretty low efficiency. surprising really, because yours are from CREE themselves.
ROI using the default led driver is just too long for me. i never believe electronics will last more than a couple of years, especially switching circuits. 5-6 years is just too long.

tho LEDs have a few important advantages that CFL could never provide. most important for me is:
1) heat dissipation to the backside of the case, which is to the ceiling.
2) can be powered by DC power using backup battery in case power failure.

best setup IMO is to isolate the DC conversion and current limit (led driver). use a high efficiency SMPS to convert to DC, then use a separate current limiter to drive the LED. you could use multiple LED per driver but there's a few downside.
upside:
- should provide higher efficiency as the current limiter is rated for ~97% efficiency, SMPS rating above 85%.
- cheaper maintenance cost since the smps and current limiter is isolated. replace just the problematic item.
- easily retrofitted to run from battery power for backup lights.
downside:
- switches will be handling DC. arching could destroy the switches in the long term.
- multiple equipment to maintain.

another easier setup is as you explained. using multiple LEDs wired in series to a single driver.
upside:
- cheaper initial cost. cheaper to modify existing wiring.
- easier to maintain. driver could be placed in easy to access area and since the LED itself are hard to spoil it's shorter downtime.
downside:
- higher replacement cost. single high power driver will cost more compared to either smps or current limiter.
- most led driver (integrated driver with smps and current limiter) have higher efficiency if nearly fully loaded. so it's gonna be hard to maintain high efficiency throughout the entire house.

have you considered building your own LED downlights?
i can't seem to find any supplier in ebay or aliexpress selling just the LED downlight case/housing. epistar 1w and 0.5w SMD LEDs are selling quite cheaply on the net. it's gonna be easy to hit 100 lumen/DC watt (or more) if we build the LED ourselves.
pair it with some cheap, high efficiency driver and string a couple of them together, it's gonna hit 90 lumens/watt or more on AC.

anyway for my garden lights, wall lights and flood lights, i'm gonna feed them DC directly (with or without current limiter) and build my own LED string. i've already bought the cases for the garden and wall lights so it's do or die.

mind to explain what is 3P? 91% efficiency is quite high.

main inspiration for the outdoor deck:

integrated steps and sitting area. tiled.
integrated planter boxes, auto irrigation system.
plumbing works will be designed to support such system, gravity fed from elevated rainwater collection tank.

inspiration for the partly shaded deck:


inspiration for the outdoor courtyard, with outdoor projection:


why yes. the wiring and plumbing is gonna be complicated.
main reason why it has to be done in DIY fashion.

you mean this right?

i've bought some for sampling. another project for another day. a viable source of energy pack for embedded systems.
yes i agree they're worth more than what xiaomi is asking for them. so good that i've bought more than i need and given as gifts to family members.

have considered solar charging. but the costs are not justifiable. as least for me.
got a friend using them tho, with a 1kw panel powering his led downlights.

he's using your normal lead acid battery. a car battery to be exact. and i'm with him on this. lithium ion cells are expensive and require extensive protection circuit. even charging circuit is quite complicated. the advantage is only for size and energy density where lithium cells stores more energy for the size.

it's better to use lead acid in this case as we have no size and weight constraints. it's reliable, have no problem supplying huge amount of current, robust, no problem with heat, less risk, doesn't require complex monitoring circuit, able to work with unstable charging voltage, and it's cheap. and it doesn't have memory effect.
having previously worked with NiCad & NiMH cell, LiOn and lead acid i really think lead acid is the best for this situation.

the reason why i won't implement it is because of the adoption costs.
it should cost about RM10k for a 1kW panel.
and if my memory serves me right, that 1kw panel should give you around 3kW per day average. 4kw at most. i'm realistic so we're gonna go with 3kw.

N70 battery at RM250 a piece. 12v x 75A = 900W per battery. 3 years working life.
say you're using all 3kW to power all the lights inside the house. realistic as it's gonna cost RM0.90 per night, ~RM30/month to power just the lights.

adoption cost at RM10k (panel) + RM750 for the battery + ~RM250 for the charging circuits, wiring, etc etc.
total RM11k, for a saving of RM30 a month for the lights.
that RM11k / RM30 per month saving = 366 month just to break even.

that's 30 years. just to break even.
not worth it IMO.

thanks for the link. will take a look.

alternatively, can power all the non-essential lights using LED that's gonna be run throughout the night time. it's cheap and won't cost much. and even they burn, they're non-essential and no problem if it takes months to replace.

the backyard area that will be turned to house the outdoor projection system:

yes the area must be cleaned beforehand.

how it looks after 3 layers of soil. it's pretty flat now. raised 2 feet from the water level.


the stream:


will let the soil set for another 3 month before starting construction.
total damage for the land fill?
219 lorry. and the cost per lorry will depend heavily on your area. i got it pretty cheap.

then again, cheap is pretty relative.
you KL people don't mind paying over 1mil for an apartment so my price is like your leftover coin in your pockets lah.

nice to see so much technical discussion going on. sorry i can't add much since class is just starting.
i don't mind you guys OOT and continue your discussion.

seriously dude, let's not add to the race bigotry. it's bad enough the segregation that we're all so accustomed to.
whatever race you might be, whatever colour of your skin, holds no correlation to the significance of information, and/or truth.

actual power measurement is quite complicated. but if you had any credible proof that the digital meter is overcharging consumers, by all mean sue TNB, report to the consumer tribunal, report to suruhanjaya tenaga, and/or report to KETTHA. if it's too much of a hassle, pass the info to a consumer association and let them proceed with it.

the simplest way to actually measure whether tnb is overcharging is to turn off all the circuit breakers at the fuse box, and use a kill-a-watt meter that could measure the energy used (in relation to time) and check the consumption for a single high power item and validate that to the meter reading.
but even that is still not bulletproof, since the kill-a-watt isn't exactly a precision instrument and it's not calibrated.

to actually be credible enough for a solid proof, you need at least one of these:

problem is, it's freaking expensive. a used unit is still going for ~RM5k.
i'm trying to get my hands on one since my mum's house is experiencing some huge voltage sag, causing the power bill to shoot sky high. reported the matter 4 times to tnb this year. without any further action.

it's full load. but power rating will always be different compared to the manufacturer specs printed on the label. usually it'll be within 10%, but it's not unusual for the power usage to within 10%-25% offset compared to the label. thus the reason to carry out actual measurement, rather than relying on the label and extrapolating from it.

things is improving dear friend. look at how the community is condemning the malay tudung lady for her racial remarks against the old chinese uncle. she's bashed left and right from the entire community, even muslims alike.

racial tension, racial hatred, racial prejudice is pretty much reduced after the few past elections. even some big issue like the whole JAIS/MAIS raid on the bible association, the usage of 'Allah' by other religions, all of those issue can't stop people from coming together. muslims are now adopting a more moderate stance. which is rarely seen during the reign of you know who.

it might take a while more. but things is definitely improving.

she should be put in jail on the charge of aggression using a weapon. the way she hit the car using the steering lock shows her intention to use the weapon to assault and hurt others.

that kind of people should be put in jail.

integration should start where there's no prejudice, at the root, at a young age, at the primary school. or even younger at the preschool.

yet the plan to scrap all the different vernacular schools in malaysia are heavily opposed and could not be done previously. we're still continuing the segregation, and indirectly supporting it by avoiding the school integration.

this is what happened to the house.

this is the original, simple outlook.
front perspective from the entry road:


back perspective from the master bedroom:
(furthest right is the master bedroom)


front perspective from the left, overlooking the family deck.


it's too simplistic. doesn't look that nice, especially from the back.
well it's supposed to be that way, since it's just a rough sketch to get a basic idea on the house outlook. in no way final.

time for some architecture magic. courtesy of the wife.

we're going for modern-minimalist outlook for both the exterior and interior.
pardon the extra things visible in the drawing. it's a work in progress after all.

walls are fixed at 12 feet high, because we're going for at least 10 feet high ceiling minimum.
opting for 10.5-11 feet high ceiling for the rooms, 14-16 feet high ceiling for the living room, family area and kitchen.

main structure beam is 1.5 feet high, for a floor raised to around 20 inch effective from the ground. it will act as a natural deterrent for rodent and snake from entering the house. the house is flanked by paddy fields around it, and snakes and rat is a natural problem here.

front perspective from the the entry road.


back perspective from the left. left side is the HT room, right side is the master bedroom.


back perspective from the right. master bedroom and deck visible.


front perspective from the deck


view of the deck with the integrated planter box and raised floor that will act as sitting area.


now it looks much nicer. i was a little worried with the basic outlook of the house previously.
after messing around with the windows design and wall arrangement, it looks pretty modern to me.

architecture magic!
the floorplan is the same, but only some parts the wall are extended by a brick length. i was surprised to see how a simple modification could change the outlook so much.