LED lights are the most efficient way spread Christmas cheer
LED lights use about 70% less energy than incandescent ones.
Strings of LED lights might cost more upfront, but you’ll recoup the savings over time.
Limiting lighting hours and using automatic timers can help save on energy costs.
When it gets dark before dinner, you might be craving a festive display of holiday lights to brighten your evening. If so, don’t let thoughts of higher energy bills dim your holiday cheer. Keep reading to see how much it costs to run Christmas lights and get tips for making your display as efficient as possible.
No bah humbugs here, but a little planning could help you save on seasonal energy costs. The amount of energy Christmas lights use depends largely on what type of bulb you’re planning to string.
LED lights use about 70% less energy than incandescent bulbs. So if you have a box of old-school string lights you inherited from your grandparents, it might be time to replace them. (A bonus: LED lights are also less prone to breakage.) If you use a local Christmas light installation service, they’ll make sure you have high quality, professional-grade lights.
While the price of energy varies by location, it costs about 10 times more to light a tree with incandescent lights than LED ones. The approximate cost to power up ten 100-light LED strands for six hours a day for 35 days is only about $1.76. So even if you’re one to decorate the day after Thanksgiving, you won’t notice much of a difference on your energy bill.
Incandescent lights will cost more than LED bulbs to add twinkle to your evenings. Lighting ten 100-bulb strings of incandescent holiday lights for six hours per day for 35 days will cost more than $10. Incandescent bulbs also don’t burn as long as LED ones, so you’ll be purchasing replacement bulbs more often.
Here are some additional steps you can take to reduce your energy consumption.
Consider turning off your holiday light display an hour earlier each night in order to reduce your energy consumption and save money.
It’s easy to accidentally leave holiday lights on all day long. Automatic timers solve this problem. You can set them to turn on your lights just as the neighbors head out for their evening strolls and then turn them off automatically at bedtime.
There’s no energy cost to bring holiday cheer to your neighborhood when your Christmas lights are powered by the sun. Small solar panels on the end of the string charge during daylight hours and then automatically turn on your lights at dusk. And because solar lights are LED, they keep consumption to a minimum.
If some lights are not visible from the street, consider strategically using extension cords. This will allow you to put the light where it’s seen without paying to light bulbs that are hidden behind posts or under shrubs.
There are online calculators that will tally how much you’ll pay to light your Christmas lights, or you can calculate the cost yourself. You will need to check the package of the string lights for the wattage. You’ll also need to know the cost per kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy in your area, which you can find on your electric bill (alternatively, you can use the national average, which is $0.167).
Multiply the wattage of the string lights by the number of hours per day you want the lights to be on.
Divide by 1,000 to calculate the kWh per day.
Multiply the kWh per day by the cost per kilowatt hour (kWh) found on your electric bill. This will give you the cost per day.
Multiply the cost per day by how many days your lights will be on; this will let you know how much extra you’ll pay in energy costs for the entire holiday season.
