American Lighting Advanced LED Retrofit Bulb - Manual

American Lighting
Advanced LED Retrofit Bulb Instructions
The American Lighting S14, C7 and C9 bulbs are low power replacements for 120VAC
incandescent lamps. The challenge in designing with LEDs is that they run on very low
voltage - typically 3.5VDC for a white LED. To reduce the 120VAC line voltage to a few
volts, the manufacturer uses a component called a capacitor. The capacitor is able to
reduce the voltage without wasting power. A byproduct of the capacitor is that the
current and voltage are shifted mostly out of phase with each other. The out-of-phase
power must now be represented in Volt-Amps and the in-phase power in Watts.
The consequence of this phase shift is that there are two different power figures that
must be used to design a 120V LED display. The Apparent Power of one American
Lighting LED lamp is about 2 Volt-Amps (VA). In designing a display, this figure must be
used to specify wire size, connector size, breaker, and fuse size. The good news is that
the power consumption is proportional to the lower Real Power figure which is in the
range of 0.5 to 1.5 Watts.
Basics
If the electrical load is a pure resistance such as an electric stove, heater or incandescent
lamp, the Real Power in Watts and the Apparent Power in Volt-Amps are approximately
equal. If however, the load contains coiled wire such as an electric motor, the voltage
and the current are shifted out of phase with each other and the power is represented
in Volt-Amps.
Power in Watts = 100 bulbs X 5 Watts/bulb = 500 Watts
Power in Volt-Amps = 100 bulbs X 2 Volt-Amps/bulb = 200 Volt-Amps
For example:
The wire gauge for displays and installations using these 500 American Lighting LED
bulbs must accommodate the 8 Amps. However, the electric bill will reflect the lower
480 Watt power consumption.
Quantity Watts/Bulb Real Power Apparent Power
500 C7
Incandescent
5 Watts
500 C7s X 5W =
2500W
500 C7s X 5VA =
2500VA
500 C7 LEDs .96 Watts
500 C7s X .96W =
480W
500 C7s X 2VA =
1000VA