As the holiday season approaches, many Americans start thinking about how they will decorate their home for the Christmas season. For most of us, our Christmas decorations will involve some form of Christmas lighting, whether hanging strands of lights on the exteriors of our homes or our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, this staple of Christmas decorating comes with several downsides: lights tend to burn out quickly, power consumption increases, and burns are somewhat common from touching hot lights.
However, over the past several years, a new type of Christmas lights has come on the market, making many of these problems obsolete. LED Christmas lights use LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of traditional incandescent bulbs. They have come down significantly in price in recent years to the point where if you are in the market for new Christmas lights, you should, without a doubt, choose LED Christmas tree lights.
LED Christmas lights are better for several reasons. Perhaps most important for both your pocketbook and the planet is that LEDs use significantly less electricity than traditional Christmas lights. While the exact amount of electricity used varies on the type of light purchased, LED Christmas lights typically use 1/10th of the electricity of traditional Christmas lights, as they are 90% more efficient. Despite this, the lights are brighter than traditional lights, giving you a brighter display for less money (LEDs also burn bright right away and do not need to “warm up” like compact fluorescent bulbs).
Multiple strands of LEDs can also be powered off a single outlet, which doesn’t work well with traditional lights. Aside from the energy savings and their environmental friendliness, LEDs also don’t have toxic chemicals such as Mercury that are found in other light bulbs.
In addition to the energy-saving benefits of choosing LED Christmas lights, LEDs have several other benefits as well. The lights burn longer than traditional Christmas lights, with some lasting as long as 50,000 hours.
Moreover, unlike incandescent Christmas lights, the whole strand will not stop functioning if one LED goes bad. LED Christmas lights are also more durable as they typically have a thick plastic coating that protects the bulbs. LEDs also burn at a lower temperature, which prevents people from burning themselves on the light and helps to prevent Christmas tree fires.
Most consumers will also be excited to learn that LED Christmas lights are available in several different configurations and that there is no need to sacrifice style when choosing LED Christmas tree lights. Whether you are looking for star-shaped, icicle-shaped, colored, or some other type of light, you can typically find them in an LED if you shop around.
Beyond festive varieties, LED Christmas lights can also be found in different configurations for different applications. For example, you can find specific outdoor LED Christmas lights, solar LED Christmas lights, and commercial LED Christmas lights.
Perhaps most importantly, LED Christmas lights are about the same price on average as traditional bulbs. When using LED Christmas lights, there are no specific decorating tips that need to be followed-you can either do your light display as usual or easily add onto it because of LEDs’ ability to be strung together. In fact, many consumers find that the lower power consumption, increased flexibility, and brighter light make it easier to get more creative with their Christmas displays.
With all the benefits of LED Christmas lights, are there any drawbacks? In my experience, there really aren’t. However, some people feel that the LED light is too blue, but testing your lights at the store before purchasing them can easily alleviate this problem. Most discount retailers and home improvement stores have displays where you can test various LED Christmas lights before purchasing them.
In sum, if you need new Christmas lights this year or are looking to save money this Holiday season, consider replacing your Christmas lights with LEDs. You will save electricity, have brighter lights, and make an investment that will last for several Christmases.
