Decorate with lights and save money

Timetrvlr

Timetrvlr

Member
Location
central interior B.C., Canada

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I wouldn't put up holiday lights before the new LED lights came along because I didn't want to face a big power bill in January. Now I can have lights because the new LED lights use 90% less power! LED stands for Light Emitting Diode, the same lights that have been around for years in our electronic appliances. Now the manufacturers have figured out how to make them in other colors as well as white.


I bought several strings of 70 icicle lights for $12.95 each at the supermarket. According to the package, each seven-foot long string of 70 lights burns 4.8 watts of power, less than most nightlights! Are they as bright as other holiday lights? They sure look like it, maybe even brighter! I’m afraid I got a bit carried away, now I have 12 strings of lights! I’ve calculated that if I run them 6 hours a day for a month, I’ll pay less than $1.30 to run all those light strings. I can afford that and it means that I won’t be an energy hog over the holidays either.
 

I've just bought two strings of LED lights, a 240 light string for the lounge tree and a 100 light string for the kitchen tree. This was because the old lights were unreliable - NOT because of any running cost. LEDs are nothing new. They have been around for a long time - and in various colours too. Actually, White was one of the last ones to be developed, the early ones being Red, Green and Orange.

It's just that the unit cost has dropped to the point where they are economical to make for tree lights. I never considered the cost of having Christmas lights to be an issue - Insignificant compared to the rest of the electricity that most homes use.
 

The tree at Rockefeller Center in NYC is lit by solar powered lights. I would like to have those if they are even available for the average person; I wonder what they would cost.



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Like the Cap'n said, they've been around for a while - I know I had them 8 or 9 years ago when I lived in Ohio. I just gave all of them away (Salvation Army) this year. I've decided my Christmas decorating days are over. But I'm glad we can enjoy yours Timetrvlr.
 
LEDs have been around for 50 or 60 years, and in fact the principle is around 100 years old. I made a set of flashing LED lights in Red, Green and Yellow for a small Xmas tree around 40 years ago. They have become commonplace in recent years for all kinds of domestic and automotive applications. I have LED lights in my house and in my campervan.
 
LED lights are Great. We are slowly replacing all our old incandescent bulbs with them as the old ones die out. They seem to be even better than the CFL bulbs, but a bit pricey. Perhaps as more and more production occurs, the prices will come down.
 

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