Do glowing LEDs use much electricity?

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Our outside lights have been replaced with 2 18w LED lights (LEDs are part of the circuit board) with pir’s.

When the light switch is on the lights permanently glow. Will this use much electricity?

I can live with the glow providing it’s not consuming too much
 
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It is probable that the PIR is using more electricity than the dim glow of the LED. Are these High/Low lights which have a dim glow at night and come on brighter when the PIR detects movement? Or are they glowing when they should be off?
 
Did you fit these lights yourself or were they fitted and tested by an electrician?

I think that you are describing light fittings with built in PIR and a built in LED (the LED lamp is not replaceable) is that correct?

Are these lights connected to a switch inside the house? If so, does that switch have a neon indicator?
 
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Many control devices (PIR, Dimmer switches, Smart switches) are designed to work without a neutral. To power the device a very small amount of power goes through the device being controlled, in your case the bulb, there should be a leak resistor in the bulb to stop is glowing, but often these are not large enough, you could use one of these load-capacitor.jpgto stop it glowing but they are still using power, so for an outside light better to just let it glow.
 
Did you fit these lights yourself or were they fitted and tested by an electrician?

I think that you are describing light fittings with built in PIR and a built in LED (the LED lamp is not replaceable) is that correct?

Are these lights connected to a switch inside the house? If so, does that switch have a neon indicator?
Yes it’s a light with built leds and our. Connected to a 2 switch in door. I think ericmark is right. It’s a cheap light.

As long as the glow isn’t consuming too much energy I’ll leave it as it
 
Many people are finding that when replacing filament lamps the new LED devices have a faint glow when switched off.

That energy is all to do with the capacitance of the cables (think of it as leakage within the cable) it is unavoidable without rewiring. That 'leakage is minimal, didn't even read on a cheap energy meter with lowest detection rate of 0.1W (equivalent to <0.876KWh per year) some people fit a snubber device to effectively short out the LED which has the effect of increasing the wasted energy and costing more to run.

Mrs Sunray fretted and worried so yes I had to make changes, I did some rewiring but would have happily spent £1 per year to satisfy her needs.

As has been said the PIR device costs more to run than the tiny glow.
 
What you said.

I believe that the 'wasted power' was always there, but would not have caused a filament to glow so was never noticed.

Also, experiments here have shown that an unbelievably tiny amount of current can be made visible by a modern LED.
 
The difference between an LED bulb that does glow and one that doesn't, is usually a well placed, high value resistor within the bulbs electronics.
The cost of the electricity to keep the bulb glowing would be exactly the same as that used within the resistor to keep the bulb 'turned off'.
So the cost is really nothing to worry about. If you are happy with the feint glow, all the better! :)

...and don't try this at home! ;)
 

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