It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without the cheerful glow of Christmas lights being strung up about your community, but with the economy as it is, many are hesitating to endure the energy costs associated with powering those Christmas lights. It’s enough of an effort just to put them all up every year without having to wait for that huge energy bill, too! Of course, LED lights offer an affordable way to lower the energy consumption of your decorations—but can they save you enough energy to make a difference?
Incandescent or LED?
Incandescent lights may have that soft, warm glow that reminds you of your childhood, but LED Christmas lights are really where it’s at when it comes down to the power bill. LED lighting has hit a bit of a Christmas revolution, and that means you can get vibrant strings of Christmas lights, icicle lights, and pre-lit wreaths that are equipped with LED lights instead of incandescent, and that can go a long way when it comes to saving on the cost of powering those lights.
LED Christmas lights consume between 80 and 90 per cent less energy than their incandescent counterparts, and they last more than three times the lifespan of your incandescent strand. Compared to 3,000 hours, LED Christmas lights last up to 100,000 hours, and they are a lot less fragile (and less dangerous) too.
How much energy do we spend on Christmas?
LED lights have been proving their energy-efficient claim to fame for years now, but how much energy do we really spend each year on Christmas decorations? Is it really worth switching to LED for the savings?
It really is. Of course, everyone decorates differently. Some people are very enthusiastic about their Christmas decoration displays and projects, and others put up a moderate amount of lights and maybe a tree. Either way, LED lights can save on your energy bill, but the more decorations you put up, the more you can potentially save.
An average house uses between one and three wreaths, a garland, and approximately 10 strings of lights to decorate the exterior of the home and trees. With incandescent lights, that’s an average of 635 watts to power your Christmas lights compared to 96 LED watts. Depending on your cost of power usage, purchasing LED Christmas lights this year could mean the difference between spending $1.63 and $10.78 to power your display.
And that’s for a moderate display. A more enthusiastic display could require as much as 6,799 incandescent watts compared to 903 LED watts—that difference could save you hundreds on your energy bill this Christmas.
How else can you save on energy this Christmas?
Of course, there are a few things you can do to help you save even more on your energy bill this Christmas season. Using timers to limit when your display is lit up can prevent you from powering an expensive display beyond the hours your audience will actually see it—and around peak hours, too—and you can use strategically placed extension cords to add a little extra low-cost length to your light strings.
Go ahead and light up your home this Christmas season—without having to worry about the power bill that comes at the end of it.
