By Philip C. Curtis •
October 28, 2009
The holiday season is quickly approaching and environmental conscious consumers should be thinking about ramping up their efforts to conserve and reduce waste. The holiday season (which most define as the period that begins around Thanksgiving and concludes after New Year’s) is a period of excess for many: we spend a lot, we eat a lot, we drive a lot, and we produce a lot of trash. By even the most conservative estimates, the average household creates about 25% more [...]
I’ve written a fair amount in the past about LED Christmas lights and the environmental benefits and costs savings they can provide. But one thing I don’t think I’ve discussed is the power consumption differences of various types of incandescent Christmas lights. Because some of the older style C7 and C9 Christmas lights draw as much as 7 watts of electricity per bulb, upgrading your old style incandescent lights to LED first will likely have the biggest payoff. I [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
October 22, 2008
A while back I wrote and article about how to calculate the energy savings of LED Christmas lights. The article I wrote describe the formula and included a link to some other resources. We recently developed a calculator that does all the work for you. All you have to do now is enter the various data and outcomes your answer. In addition to calculating the cost and energy savings of using LED Christmas lights the calculator can also help you [...]
We frequently help our customers analyze the cost savings that can be achieved by using LED lights instead of incandescents. The calculations to determine the cost savings are not very complicated but it is a lot easier with a good conversion calculator handy. Our Energy Scrooge Calculator provides some interesting information about the benefits of LED lights but we’ve ever written about how to calculate the exact savings one can expect by replacing their old incandescent Christmas lights with [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
April 25, 2008
In further celebration of Earth Day, Holidayleds.com will be donating $1000 to a qualifying environmental non-profit organization chosen by popular vote. Any U.S. 501(c)(3) organization with a mission related to sustainability, environmentalism, the fight against global warming or any other environmental cause is eligible.
Right now, HolidayLEDs.com is seeking suggestions for qualified charities. The site will be accepting suggestions for the next 14 days. All suggested charities who meet the minimum requirements will be placed on a [...]
Spring is just around the corner (a very long corner for those of us who live in the north.) Americans are very concerned about their lawns. Each year we spend millions of dollars on fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals and services to make sure that our yards are greener than the neighbors. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have a nice lawn, but its important that we consider the effect that our lawn care efforts have on the environment.
Apparently, [...]
A quick update on the results of my companies’ holiday recycling program…Although we extended our Christmas light recycling program into a year-round operation and the lights are still trickling in, the bulk of the participation is over. We estimate that we had over 5,000 participants and that we received approximately 3,000 pounds of Christmas lights. We we really please with the participation. Quite frankly, we thought we might receive a handful of lights and that would be the end [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
February 14, 2008
Not really but HolidayLEDs.com announced today that it will continue its Christmas light recycling program beyond the previously established sunset date of January 31, 2008.
So far the company reports that it has recycled over 3,000 pounds of incandescent holiday lights which it received from several hundred participants. Anyone who is looking for some place to send their old Christmas lights to die can mail them to HolidayLEDs.com for recycling.
And because I know it will be asked, the lights [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
February 5, 2008
I own an e-commerce company and we do a lot of shipping and receiving. We work hard to minimize our packaging waste (in fact we don’t use any packaging material.) I see a lot of waste coming in from various vendors and to be fair some it simply seems hard to eliminate. In other cases, the waste is just ridiculous.
There is one example in particular I think warrants recognition. We occasionally purchase shipping supplies from [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
February 5, 2008
Presumably anyone reading this article is interested in making environmentally sound decisions and living a low-impact lifestyle. Many of us are willing to make an extra effort, go that extra step to do something that we perceive is better for the environment. But the question that many people are now asking (and we all should be evaluating) is what is the environmental impact of those extra efforts? Is it possible that the efforts we make to be [...]
