Green Options » LED holiday lights

LED Christmas Light Calculator

Philip C. Curtis — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:55:06 +0000

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 determine how many Christmas or holiday lights you should have for your tree.

If you like doing math feel free to follow the directions in my previous article–otherwise just try this Christmas light calculator.

Save Money and Energy on Christmas Lights this Year

Philip C. Curtis — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:23:49 +0000

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 partly because this is one of the darkest times of year but its also because people are using more electricity to light up their homes with holiday decorations. Incandescent Christmas lights are inefficient and won’t last very long. They also break very easily. LED technology has found its way into the world of Christmas lights and is much more efficient. Specifically, LED Christmas lights use about 90% less energy than standard incandescent lights and will last for more than 50,000 hours. The bulbs are also covered with a durable epoxy plastic so they won’t break.

This year pay attention to you consumption during the holidays and do what you can to reduce your energy consumption.

HolidayLEDs.com Offers Coupon to Utility Customers

Philip C. Curtis — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:45:35 +0000

October 29, 2007

HolidayLEDs.com, a new ecommerce company located in Michigan which specializes in energy-efficient LED holiday lighting, is offering a discount on its LED holiday lights to customers of all U.S. utility companies. “LED holiday lights can have an astounding impact on holiday energy consumption and we want to give our nation’s utility companies a tool to help encourage their customers to make the switch,” said Philip C. Curtis, co-owner of HolidayLEDs.com. HolidayLEDs.com is offering a 10% discount to all customers of participating U.S. utility companies on its full line of LED holiday lights.

LED Christmas lights have been commercially available for about 5 years now but most people still purchase and use standard incandescent lights. LED holiday lights are 80-99% more efficient than standard incandescent lights and will last for more than 50,000 hours. “These lights last so long most people will not have to replace them in their lifetime,” added Curtis. In a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency, it was determined that Americans consume about 2220 GWh of electricity during the estimated 30 day holiday season with incandescent holiday lights. The report concluded that a mere 20% shift to LED Christmas lights would save more than 440 GWh of electricity each year.

Energy-efficiency and longevity are not the only benefits of LED Christmas tree lights. “Our lights are extremely durable and can literally withstand the force of a full-sized truck,” said Curtis. The LED technology also produces light by an entirely different method which results in a safer holiday light. “Incandescent bulbs produce light by heating up a conductive filament until it glows.” explained Curtis. “In contrast, an LED directly produces light and very little heat is created,” Curtis added. In fact, LEDs produced so little heat that they remain cool to the touch even after hours of operation. This feature makes them more attractive and safe for typical holiday applications.

Interested utility companies can contact HolidayLEDs.com for more information about the program which is set to launch November 1, 2007 and will conclude on December 23rd. Anyone interested in purchasing LED Christmas lights can do so at HolidayLEDs.com.

LED Christmas Tree Light Experiment

Philip C. Curtis — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:10:40 +0000

This weekend we did a little early holiday decorating on my friends house. We’ve been reading a lot about LED Christmas tree lights and crunching a lot of numbers about their energy efficiency but we hadn’t really seen what they can do with our own eyes. So, this past Sunday (with leaves still on the tree and 75 degrees) we installed 2000 LED Christmas lights on my friends house and tree. We connected all 2000 lights together and plugged them into one plug which was connected to a watt meter. All 2000 lights only drew 150 watts of electricity. We did some math and determined that it would cost about $40 a year to run the lights for 8 hours a day for an entire year. I’m not sure if 2000 lights seems like a lot to the average reader but its quite a lot of lights. My friends back yard is very, very well lit.

If we did the same thing with incandescent lights it would draw over 1700 watts of electricity.

Now that they are up we are going to test their longevity. We are going to ask our friend Dave (or the Selling Machine as we call him) to leave them on 24/7/365 and see how long they will last. I’ll let you know if they are still burning next year at this time.

Powering LED Xmas Lights with Solar Power

Philip C. Curtis — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:49:38 +0000

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.

I would be very interested in hearing any comments anyone has on solar power units. We are hoping to set this up as a demonstration.

The Indestructible LED Xmas Light

Philip C. Curtis — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:32:25 +0000

One of the big reasons that Christmas lights suck is because they are so fragile. They break if the wind blows, they break if you drop them, they break if you smash them against the neighbor’s house (who’s Christmas display really blows), and sometimes they don’t work when you pull them out of the attic.
LED Xmas lights are not woosies like the standard incandescent lights. These things can take a punch. I was watching the Bert Hawley show the other night and he completely smashed a set of these lights with his microphone. I know, I know what you are thinking, Bert Hawley is a total wimp. I agree, Bert is a wimp but he wields a big heavy microphone which he employed in his futile attempt to smash these lights. I’ve seen videos where trucks run them over–they’re just plain tough.

So, besides using 80-90% less energy,LED Christmas tree lights are the Superman of the world of Christmas lights.

3 Reasons to Buy LED Holiday Lights

Philip C. Curtis — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:57:07 +0000

You know those gnarly Christmas lights you have stashed away in the basement, closet or attic? Well, here’s 3 reasons to leave them there this year and replace them with LED string lighting:

1. LED Christmas lights are 80-99% more efficient than standard incandescent lights.

2. LED holiday lights are safer than incandescent lights. They operate at 1 degree above ambient room temperature and draw so little energy that risk of circuit overload.

3. LED Christmas lights will save you money. Not only will you save money in the form of lower energy costs, but you will also save money because you won’t have to replace your Christmas lights every year. LED string lights have a useful life of over 50,000.

My New Green Office Policy

Philip C. Curtis — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:48:09 +0000

Ok. So I took some advice from one of my new Green Options friends who suggested I search the site for suggestions on green office policies. I found a great article and used it as a template for our new policy (although, I could not in good faith implement all of them just yet.) In any event it was a good start.

So this year while we are encouraging people to buy our energy-efficient LED holiday lighting, we will be doing our best to reduce our businesses impact on the environment.

Our new office policy is posted on our site.

Tips for Buying LED Christmas Lights

Philip C. Curtis — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:43:10 +0000

Although the progress in lighting technology has move slowly, there is a new and better option for holiday and Christmas string lighting: LED string lighting. LED string lighting is still relatively new to most consumers as it has only been widely available for a few years. LED string lighting is available in a wide variety of shapes, colors, sizes and qualities. This year if you decide to make the switch to LED Christmas or holiday string lights here are a few things you should consider:
1. Number of Lights. Most people are accustomed to purchasing a standard set of 150 mini incandescent lights. Strings of 150 lights are the standard in incandescent string lighting. However, LED string lights are offered in a variety of configurations: 25, 25, 50, 100, and 200 bulb strings. When shopping for LED Christmas lights be sure to determine how many lights are on each string. Strings with more LED lights will be more expensive. Thus, you may find a set of white LED mini lights offered for $9.99 and another set offered for $24.99. Although there is some variation in the retail prices among the different companies offering the LEDs lights, in most cases the price difference is explained by the number of lights on the strings.
2. Warranty. Because LED lights last for so long and cost a bit more, most reputable retailers will offer some form of a warranty. The real value in exchanging your old incandescent holiday string lights for LED string lights is the savings that will be obtained after a few years of use. Although the payback is usually pretty quick because of the substantial energy savings and replacement costs savings, you will not benefit from these savings if you purchase a poor quality LED string light or a product that is not back by a long-term warranty. Make sure the LED string lights you purchase are backed by at least a 5 year warranty.
3. Professional or Residential Grade. LED holiday and Christmas lights are offered by some retailers in both a professional and residential grade. In most cases, the standard or residential grade LEDs only allow for safe connection of up to 3 strings end-to-end. This is not ideal for large displays. If you have a large display you should consider a professional grade LED string light. HolidayLEDs’ professional grade LED string lights allow for end-to-end connection of up to 1/2 mile of lights. The professional grade lights also feature a commercial grade 20 gauge wire that is more durable than the residential grade wire. If you are doing a large display–indoor or outdoor–you should consider a professional grade LED holiday string light.
4. Replaceable or Irreplaceable Bulbs. LED holiday and Christmas string lights are offered with LED bulbs that can be replaced and sets with bulbs that cannot be replaced. Being able to replace a bulb was critical for incandescent lights because they would fail so frequently. It is not such an important feature with LED string lights because the bulbs fail so infrequently and the failure of one bulb will not cause the rest of the string to fail. The advantage of the one-piece construction (which render the LED bulbs irreplaceable) is that the one-piece construction is virtually weather and moisture proof. As long as the LED strings are covered by a good warranty, the benefits of the one-piece construction far exceed any disadvantage of not being able to replace a bulb.
5. Buy Early. Although manufacturer’s have increased production this year to meet demand, in each of the last 3 holiday seasons demand for LED Christmas lights has exceeded supply and many retailers ran out of product well before Christmas approached. If you are thinking about purchasing LED holiday string lights this year try to buy them early. Many retailers offer pre-season sales .