With the cost of electrical energy rising daily and with the increasing concern over the impact that energy production has on the environment, it is time to switch to LED Christmas lighting technology. LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes is not new technology; LEDs have been around since 1907 with their first commercial use as readouts on electronic test equipment. You are probably most familiar with them as the lighted displays on your pocket calculators, cable box displays, station displays on your car radios, etc. On the other hand, their use in Christmas tree lights and other lighted decorations is relatively new. They started to appear on pre-lit Christmas trees in 1998 or 1999. Today they can be found in stores displayed right next to the old fashion incandescent Christmas lights, but few people know the advantages to switching to LED lights that far outweigh the disadvantages i.e. their higher initial cost.
Traditional string lights
Traditional Christmas tree string lights have many disadvantages compared to LED Christmas lights. You can only safely connect three strings in series. The individual bulbs get very hot, which is a fire hazard, and the bulbs break very easily. The cost of these lights is low compared to LED lights but ten strings of congenital lights will cost, on the average, $172.00 per season to operate. Last, but not least, conventional lights have an average burn life of 1,500 hours.
LED Christmas lights
LED Christmas lights have many advantages over the conventional lights that more than compensate for their higher initial cost. They will cost you a whopping 72 cents to operate for a full month compared to $172.00. They will last 100,000 hours compared to 1,500 hours, which means if you burn them 8 hours a day, for 30 days, they will last you 416 years. For all practical purpose, they will last you a lifetime. They generate little heat energy so they are not a fire hazard. They are of solid constructions as opposed to a fragile glass shell, so they will not break easily. In addition, with LED light strings, you can connect up to 125 strings in series without exceeding the maximum safe current rating of the wires.
Other LED lit Christmas decorations
Besides light strings, LED lighting technology can be found in all sorts of Christmas decorations, everything from life-size lit reindeer to candles and stars.
Conclusion
By switching to LED lit Christmas decoration, you can save 80 to 90 percent on energy consumption and energy cost this Christmas season. LED lights and lit displays are also available for other major holidays i.e. Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentines Day, etc. With LED lighting technology, you can save energy all year round.
