How To Make Your Christmas Lights More Energy-Efficient

Christmas lights help to add beauty and color to the wintertime holiday. Christmas arrives when the days are short and the nights are long, which makes holiday lights even more desirable.

Whether you like stringing a few lights or a whole lot of them, the drain on your electricity can make using the holiday lights costlier than intended. With utility costs on the rise, you might wonder: How can I save money while using Christmas lights?

Fortunately, you can make your home and yard look festive during the holiday without blowing up your budget. Using LED lights and a timer to control them will help reduce power consumption and save money.

What are the advantages of using LED Christmas lights?

The incandescent bulb has lit up strings of Christmas lights for many decades.

Using traditional incandescent lights on your holiday display could cost between $10 and $15 for a modest display of Christmas lights. A lot of lights could run up your bill to about $115 for heavy usage.

By contrast, LED lights would run about $2 for a modest display and $15 for heavy usage. If you enjoy stringing a lot of lights, the cost for heavy use could top $300 with incandescent bulbs versus about $50 with LED lights.

Other Advantages of LED Lights

Incandescent bulbs use a lot of electricity and give off a lot of heat. The combination of hot bulbs and high power consumption makes strings of incandescent lights potentially dangerous and a possible fire hazard.

By contrast, LED bulbs use about 80 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs. LED lights also last longer and do not produce as much heat, making them safer to use.

You could replace your strings of traditional Christmas lights with new ones that use LED lights. You also gradually could make the change to removing burned-out incandescent bulbs and replacing them with LED lights.

Should I put my Christmas lights on a timer?

Putting your Christmas lights on a timer certainly can help you to save money on power. Timed lights will stay on until the timer turns them off and stay off until the timer turns them back on.

You no longer have to turn them on and off manually. Doing it by hand means forgetting to shut them off from time to time and running up your power bill – especially when using incandescent bulbs.

Timers will turn your lights on and off even when you are not home. A timed holiday light display helps to prevent your neighbors from getting annoyed late at night. It also helps to keep potential thieves away while you are away from home.  

Categorised in: Home Electrical

This post was written by admin