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 [...]
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 •
January 18, 2008
The incandescent bulb has been the standard in lighting since it was introduced over 100 years ago and we switched from candles. Incandescent lights are very inefficient as they expend a large portion of the energy needed to power them on heat. In the last few years compact fluorescent lights have become widely available and are now a common and easy to find replacement for standard incandescent bulbs. Although compact fluorescent lights are much more efficient than [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
November 4, 2007
Halloween is over and even though the trees still have green leaves because of the mild fall we are having, Christmas is just around the corner. Americans consume a lot of extra energy and create and extraordinary amount of waste during the holidays. In fact, it is estimated that we produce more than 1 million extra tons of garbage each week from the period between Thanksgiving and Halloween.
We also consume a great amount of energy. This is [...]
By Philip C. Curtis •
September 24, 2007
LED Xmas lights consume only .072 watts of electricty per bulb. This means that a standard set of 70 LED Christmas tree lights will only draw about 5 watts of power. With the LED string lights drawing so little power one can easily operate a substantial outdoor display with a very basic solar power generation unit. A solar powered LED holiday light display would be ideal for homeowners in the southern U.S.
