Save Energy with LED Christmas Lights

Rockerfeller Tree with 50,000 Lights

We all love our holiday celebrations and that often involves decorating with lights. They’re easy to set up, beautiful inside and outside our homes but how much electricity do they use? and what does that cost?

Here are tips for making more energy conscious decisions regarding holiday lights:

• Bigger bulbs (C-7) use between 4 and 10 watts/hr … per bulb, averaging 25 lights per string. A string of C-7 (4 watts/bulb) x 25 bulbs/string = 100 watts per hour.
• Mini-light bulbs use one tenth or 0.4 watts/hr and average 35 to 200 lights per string. The popular icicle lights use mini-lights and usually require many more strings to cover the same distance as a regular string of mini-lights. Mini-lights (0.4 watts/bulb) x 100 bulbs/string = 40 watts per hour.
• The new Light Emitting Diode (LED) holiday lights save even more energy, drawing only 0.04 watts/hr … per bulb, typically with 35 to 100 lights per string. A string of LED lights (0.04 watts/bulb) x 100 bulbs/string = 4 watts per hour, a significant savings over more traditional holiday lights.

LED lights have other advantages. When one bulb on a string goes bad, the rest of the lights on the string still work. LED bulbs never get hot and you can connect up to 25 strings of LED lights together without overloading a typical household circuit, a common problem. LED lights should also last at least 5 years.

Yes, I really took the photo. I was born in New York City and visited this weekend with my best friend Nance, a holiday tradition started more than 25 years ago.

Tina at Rockerfeller Center