Improvements over the years in the efficiency of decorative holiday lighting have helped many customers lower energy use. Miniature holiday lights, for example, have replaced larger bulbs in most decorations.
For even greater savings, the latest improvement in holiday lighting is decorations with Light Emitting Diodes instead of bulbs. LED’s use 90 percent less energy, are more durable and can last years longer. Operating ten strings of mini-LED lights as compared to ten strings of standard mini-lights can save nearly $12 in energy costs in one month.
A comparison of the energy cost for four popular types of holiday lights is below.
|
|
Old Style | LED Lights | ||
| Large Bulbs (C7, C9) |
Small Bulbs (Mini) |
Large Bulbs | Small Bulbs (Mini) |
|
| Lights Per String | 25 | 100 | 25 | 70 |
| Watts Per String | 175 | 40 | 2 | 4.2 |
| Hours of Use Per Day | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Days In Month | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| kWh Average Cost | $0.18 | $0.18 | $0.18 | $0.18 |
| Number of Strings | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Average Monthly Cost | $56.70 | $12.96 | $0.65 | $1.36 |
The above calculations assume large incandescent, old style light bulbs use 7 watts per bulb while small incandescent, old style bulbs use 0.4 watts per bulb. It also assumes large LED bulbs use 0.08 watts per bulb and small LED bulbs use 0.06 watts per bulb.
