Its LED holiday light time!

If you love decorating your home or apartment this time of year, did you know you can save a lot of money by going with LED lights for the holidays?  LEDs are “light emitting diodes,” which are significantly more energy-efficient and long-lasting than traditional Christmas lights.

Many people see a big increase in their energy bills over the holidays.  With LED Christmas lights, you don’t have to worry about leaving your holiday display on overnight.  That’s because they are not plugged into a socket.  Instead, many LED lights are solar-powered.

A small solar panel is positioned where it will get UV light.  During the day, a battery is recharged.  At night, the energy is used to keep your outdoor lighting shining bright until morning.

Can you imagine the power bill of this home, if they hadn’t used LED holiday lights?

Light up your holiday season without lightening your wallet

This year, you’ll find LED holiday lights in a vast array of sizes, shapes, colors and styles.  You can also purchase them at just about any hardware store, or major home improvement shop (think Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe’s, even Costco).  Be sure you pick out Energy Star-qualified LEDs.

Here are some fast facts to help guide you in your Christmas décor:

• They are cool to the touch, since they do not emit heat – this reduces the danger of tree fires
• They last up to 10 times longer than conventional holiday lights
• Lighting with LEDs consumes 75-90% less energy than regular incandescent bulbs
• They now come in a large variety of colors and lengths – from icicles to strands, colored to white, snowflakes and nets… even blinking options
• If all households in the United States alone switched to LED holiday lights, $410 million in electricity savings could be achieved!
• Some stores like Home Depot are giving customers a credit when they bring in old incandescent Christmas lights and purchase new LED lights

Not sure how these facts translate to your holidays?  Consider this:  lighting your Christmas tree with standard C-7 bulbs and running them for 12 hours a day, for 40 days (from now through New Years) will cost you $25.13 in electricity.  If you use LED Christmas lights instead, you’ll pay only 56 cents for power.  That’s some impressive math!

Of course, famous tree displays around the world have been using LED lights for at least several years.  Perhaps the most famous is the tree in Rockefeller Center, which now saves almost as much energy in a single day as is typically used by a family in an entire month:

More than 30,000 LED lights are strung on about 5 miles of wire to illuminate the Rockefeller Center tree.  To support the LED lighting of the tree, Rockefeller Center itself has 365 solar panels installed on its roof.  The panels generate about 70 kW of energy.

Save on time and money by going with LED lights this season.  Put away the extension cords, and don’t be hit with a huge electricity bill in January (you’ll probably have other bills to contend with).

Their long-lasting nature will have you singing “Joy to the World” for years to come!