It is the time of year when many people wish to show their holiday spirit by decorating their homes with all sorts of holiday lights, and now, including LED christmas lights.
LED Lights - The Revolution Has Arrived:
During the dark, cold days of December, many of us welcome bright, colorful Christmas lights, bringing a very festive appearance to our homes - Also the kids won't let you forget that these lights will let Santa know where you live. Up until now, traditional Christmas lights have consumed a tremendous amount of electricity.
While many residents use these traditional Christmas lights, it is not unusual for utility bills to skyrocket during the holiday season. Many people were forced to give up on the traditional lights for some other decoration to help save money over the holidays. Several years ago, we began to see energy-saving LED Christmas lights arriving on store shelves.
The first generation of LED's have been plagued with assorted problems. The white light strings often had a bluish hue and were far too bright. Also, colored light strings lacked the warmth that we were all drawn to in our lighting decorations. Keep in mind that when they were first introduced, LED Christmas lights were very costly as compared to the traditional lighting strings.
Manufactures of LED lighting have made great strides in LED lighting technology in the past few years, making LED Christmas Lights appear more like traditional lighting that we all grew up with, allowing the consumer to save a lot of energy over the holidays as well.
LED Christmas Lights - Traditional Christmas Lights
Now consider that there are some significant advancements that have made LED lights more appealing. Of course the most obvious advantage is the reduced energy consumption. LED Christmas lights use a fraction of the energy used by traditional lighting strings.
There was a very interesting study made by a major retailer comparing LED's to traditional lighting.
Mini-Bulb LED Christmas Lights (60 bulbs) uses 4.8 watts per string.
Traditional Non-LED Mini-Lights with 100 bulbs use 40.8 watts per string.
Note that the 60 LED bulbs output about the same amount of lighting brightness as the 100 traditional bulbs.
C9 LED Lights with 25 bulbs consume 2.4 watts
C9 Traditional Lights; 25 bulbs: Energy Used 175 watts
If you choose to deck your home with hundreds or even thousands of lights, making the switch to LED Christmas lights can put a significant dent in your electric bill in a very short period of time.
LED Christmas Lights - Additional Advantages
By using LED's you no longer need to deal with a completely dead light strings due to just one burned out bulb. As we all remember, just one bulb gave all kinds of grief with traditional bulbs. Although newer traditional lighting strings have eliminated this problem, the bulbs still have a very short life-span.
LED's certainly do not suffer from this problem and with a bulb life of at least 25,000 hours, you will likely not have to purchase replacements for your lifetime.
Also most LED's are made from high-impact plastic rather than either glass or a filament that breaks.
LED Bulbs Are Very Cool In Operation
We all know that simply touching a traditional bulb that has been turned on for a while will give a nasty burn. LED's can be used without worry of overloading circuits, or creating a fire hazard - or getting your fingers burned.
Nowadays there are many fantastic varieties of LED Christmas lights available from the traditional looking lights to strings that look like snowflakes, icicles, and other shapes. Also due to the fact that LED's are each controlled by a separate processor, you can have flashing, blinking and other elaborate displays.
What Are The Disadvantages of LED Christmas Lights?
As they progress with technology, this list of disadvantages gets shorter each year.
As early LED strings were very expensive, the most recent selection has come down in price considerably. LED Holiday lights can still be more expensive than traditional lights, but smart shopping has shown they are very competitive in price. Don't forget the energy savings that are associated with LED's. Using 10% of the energy of their traditional counterparts, they pay for themselves in no-time.
More recently manufacturers have addressed the problems LED's had with harsh color qualities, and the bluish hue of the white lights. You will find that the newer LED's now have adjusted colors which are more toward the warm colors, including warmer white lights. The first colored LED lights were extremely harsh as well. That being said, when shopping for new LED Christmas lights, be sure to look for lights with a natural warm glow.
Given all of this technology, we feel that there is no question that the new LED Christmas Lights are THE way to go. The difference in energy usage alone, is a great reason to make the switch.
Additional energy savings can be realized by turning off your Christmas lights during the day and in the middle of the night. Timers are very inexpensive and easy to install.
LED Lights - The Revolution Has Arrived:
During the dark, cold days of December, many of us welcome bright, colorful Christmas lights, bringing a very festive appearance to our homes - Also the kids won't let you forget that these lights will let Santa know where you live. Up until now, traditional Christmas lights have consumed a tremendous amount of electricity.
While many residents use these traditional Christmas lights, it is not unusual for utility bills to skyrocket during the holiday season. Many people were forced to give up on the traditional lights for some other decoration to help save money over the holidays. Several years ago, we began to see energy-saving LED Christmas lights arriving on store shelves.
The first generation of LED's have been plagued with assorted problems. The white light strings often had a bluish hue and were far too bright. Also, colored light strings lacked the warmth that we were all drawn to in our lighting decorations. Keep in mind that when they were first introduced, LED Christmas lights were very costly as compared to the traditional lighting strings.
Manufactures of LED lighting have made great strides in LED lighting technology in the past few years, making LED Christmas Lights appear more like traditional lighting that we all grew up with, allowing the consumer to save a lot of energy over the holidays as well.
LED Christmas Lights - Traditional Christmas Lights
Now consider that there are some significant advancements that have made LED lights more appealing. Of course the most obvious advantage is the reduced energy consumption. LED Christmas lights use a fraction of the energy used by traditional lighting strings.
There was a very interesting study made by a major retailer comparing LED's to traditional lighting.
Mini-Bulb LED Christmas Lights (60 bulbs) uses 4.8 watts per string.
Traditional Non-LED Mini-Lights with 100 bulbs use 40.8 watts per string.
Note that the 60 LED bulbs output about the same amount of lighting brightness as the 100 traditional bulbs.
C9 LED Lights with 25 bulbs consume 2.4 watts
C9 Traditional Lights; 25 bulbs: Energy Used 175 watts
If you choose to deck your home with hundreds or even thousands of lights, making the switch to LED Christmas lights can put a significant dent in your electric bill in a very short period of time.
LED Christmas Lights - Additional Advantages
By using LED's you no longer need to deal with a completely dead light strings due to just one burned out bulb. As we all remember, just one bulb gave all kinds of grief with traditional bulbs. Although newer traditional lighting strings have eliminated this problem, the bulbs still have a very short life-span.
LED's certainly do not suffer from this problem and with a bulb life of at least 25,000 hours, you will likely not have to purchase replacements for your lifetime.
Also most LED's are made from high-impact plastic rather than either glass or a filament that breaks.
LED Bulbs Are Very Cool In Operation
We all know that simply touching a traditional bulb that has been turned on for a while will give a nasty burn. LED's can be used without worry of overloading circuits, or creating a fire hazard - or getting your fingers burned.
Nowadays there are many fantastic varieties of LED Christmas lights available from the traditional looking lights to strings that look like snowflakes, icicles, and other shapes. Also due to the fact that LED's are each controlled by a separate processor, you can have flashing, blinking and other elaborate displays.
What Are The Disadvantages of LED Christmas Lights?
As they progress with technology, this list of disadvantages gets shorter each year.
As early LED strings were very expensive, the most recent selection has come down in price considerably. LED Holiday lights can still be more expensive than traditional lights, but smart shopping has shown they are very competitive in price. Don't forget the energy savings that are associated with LED's. Using 10% of the energy of their traditional counterparts, they pay for themselves in no-time.
More recently manufacturers have addressed the problems LED's had with harsh color qualities, and the bluish hue of the white lights. You will find that the newer LED's now have adjusted colors which are more toward the warm colors, including warmer white lights. The first colored LED lights were extremely harsh as well. That being said, when shopping for new LED Christmas lights, be sure to look for lights with a natural warm glow.
Given all of this technology, we feel that there is no question that the new LED Christmas Lights are THE way to go. The difference in energy usage alone, is a great reason to make the switch.
Additional energy savings can be realized by turning off your Christmas lights during the day and in the middle of the night. Timers are very inexpensive and easy to install.
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Be sure to get all of the information in our article: LED Christmas Lights. Also for more great tips on living and building with sustainability, visit our site: Green Living Made Easy.
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