Save money by replacing incandescent holiday lights with LED versions
Nov 10, 2009 11:14 AM
If your holiday lights have seen better days, you might want to replace incandescent versions with more-efficient and more-durable LED lights.
Our tests of mini, C7, and C9 holiday lights showed that while incandescent versions did burn more brightly than LEDs, the LEDs were much more durable, ran cooler and posed a lower fire risk, and cost less to operate. While the initial cost of LEDs is higher than that of incandescents, we found that LEDs used 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy compared with 12 to 105 kWh for incandescents, generating savings of $1 to $11. Watch the video for more details.
Home Depot is offering an added incentive to trade in your played-out strings. For each string of used or broken incandescent holiday lights you turn in through November 15, Home Depot will give you $3 off any new LED lights you buy. The retailer says it will recycle any lights you turn in.
Remember, LED lights are not foolproof, as evidenced by this March 2009 recall issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The lights presented a fire hazard and lacked an easily verifiable label from Underwriters Laboratories or any other recognized testing laboratory indicating that the product had met all safety and construction standards. To keep things safe at your home, follow these precautions for holiday lights:
• Buy only products certified by a recognized testing laboratory, including UL, ETL, or CSA. For UL-listed products, look for the silver- or gold-foil UL label on the cord itself. Labels with the green holographic UL logo indicate the lights are for indoor use only, while those with the red holographic UL logo can be used indoors and out.
• Before you hang them, inspect light strings carefully for loose connections, bare or frayed wires, missing bulbs, and cracked sockets.
• Don't use indoor string lights for more than a 90-day season without inspecting. Don't use outdoor lights for more than three holiday seasons.
• Don't connect more than three strings of push-in bulbs or up to 50 screw-in bulbs together. There are no specific limitations for LED light strings.
• Since the lights' electrical cords might contain lead, refrain from eating while hanging lights and wash your hands after handling them.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook
Essential information: Save money on lighting elsewhere in your house by using Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Read our latest report on CFLs and check out the ratings of these energy-saving bulbs (available to subscribers).
Our tests of mini, C7, and C9 holiday lights showed that while incandescent versions did burn more brightly than LEDs, the LEDs were much more durable, ran cooler and posed a lower fire risk, and cost less to operate. While the initial cost of LEDs is higher than that of incandescents, we found that LEDs used 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy compared with 12 to 105 kWh for incandescents, generating savings of $1 to $11. Watch the video for more details.
Home Depot is offering an added incentive to trade in your played-out strings. For each string of used or broken incandescent holiday lights you turn in through November 15, Home Depot will give you $3 off any new LED lights you buy. The retailer says it will recycle any lights you turn in.
Remember, LED lights are not foolproof, as evidenced by this March 2009 recall issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The lights presented a fire hazard and lacked an easily verifiable label from Underwriters Laboratories or any other recognized testing laboratory indicating that the product had met all safety and construction standards. To keep things safe at your home, follow these precautions for holiday lights:
• Buy only products certified by a recognized testing laboratory, including UL, ETL, or CSA. For UL-listed products, look for the silver- or gold-foil UL label on the cord itself. Labels with the green holographic UL logo indicate the lights are for indoor use only, while those with the red holographic UL logo can be used indoors and out.
• Before you hang them, inspect light strings carefully for loose connections, bare or frayed wires, missing bulbs, and cracked sockets.
• Don't use indoor string lights for more than a 90-day season without inspecting. Don't use outdoor lights for more than three holiday seasons.
• Don't connect more than three strings of push-in bulbs or up to 50 screw-in bulbs together. There are no specific limitations for LED light strings.
• Since the lights' electrical cords might contain lead, refrain from eating while hanging lights and wash your hands after handling them.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook
Essential information: Save money on lighting elsewhere in your house by using Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Read our latest report on CFLs and check out the ratings of these energy-saving bulbs (available to subscribers).
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