LEDs happen to be ideal for decorative
things like holiday lights, because they burn bright but cool, they last for a
very long time and they cost very little to run.
If you're not yet familiar with LED
lighting, it's time to illuminate yourself, lest you be considered an LUD
(that's short for Luddite, a 19th-century English anti-industrialist, now
synonymous with anyone who's way behind the times with technology). But don't
worry; all you need to know about LEDs is that they're good lightbulbs. Better
than incandescent, halogen and, yes, fluorescent.
LEDs happen to be ideal for decorative
things like holiday lights, because they burn bright but cool, they last for a
very long time and they cost very little to run. There's just one catch: LED lights are relatively expensive to buy. So the question we're
addressing this holiday season is: Are they worth it?
What's so great about LEDs?
Conventional holiday lights have become
disposable goods. They're so cheap and so cheaply made that we expect to get
about two seasons out of a string before cursing it and replacing it with
another $3 set. And if you pay that little, you know you're getting the kind
that are wired to go out entirely if just one tiny bulb has a problem. LED
lighting should change all that. A good set of LED lights features
"stay-on" wiring, plastic (not glass) bulbs, a three-year warrantee
(see "Don't cheap out," below) and an estimated 20,000 hours of bulb
life. Compare that last number to Consumer
Reports' finding incandescent holiday lights that started burning out
before 2,000 hours. LEDs also use 70 to 90 percent less energy to run, and
therein lies your best bet for a favorable ROI (that's short for return on
investment, for any financial Luddites out there).
Figuring your ROI
Chances are, you'll run your holiday lights
for about a month, from sometime after Thanksgiving to sometime after New
Year's. If your outdoor lights are on for an average of five hours per day,
that's a total operating time of 155 hours per season. You can assume your cost
of electricity is around 11 cents per kilowatt hour (a commonly used national
average). Looking at two comparable strings of 100 miniature lights (produced
by the same well-known company), the LED version uses about 8 watts per string;
the incandescent version uses about 50 watts per string. Therefore, the LED
string costs 13.6 cents for the season (8 x 155 = 1.24 kilowatt hours); the
incandescent string costs 85 cents per season (50 x 155 = 7.75 kilowatt hours).
The LED lights would save you 71.4 cents
per string, per season. If you have 10 strings, that's a total of $7.14 per
year. Add to that savings the likelihood of LED lights lasting much longer than
conventional lights and you'll see it's a good bet that LEDs will cost less in
the long run. They're also guaranteed to be 70 to 90 percent better for the
environment (not to mention that their longevity means less low-grade PVC
plastic in the landfill).
Don't cheap out
If you decide to take the plunge this year
and switch to LED holiday lights, it's a good idea to go with a reputable brand
and, whenever possible, choose lights with the Energy Star label. According to
the Energy Star website, decorative lights that earn the Energy Star offer a three-year
warranty and are "independently tested to meet strict lifetime
and electrical requirements." It's the lifetime testing you should be
concerned with, because if CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) are any indication,
poorly manufactured LED lights may survive only a fraction of their estimated
lifespan.
