Switching to LED Holiday Lights is an easy way to save energy, save money, save resources, stay safe and be green this holiday season. How much energy, how much money, how many resources, how safe, and how green you ask? Well...
Save Energy -
LED string lighting uses approximately 90% less energy than standard incandescent string lights. An average sized Christmas tree illuminated with incandescent string lighting for a 30 day period will consume approximately 75 kilowatts of electricity. The same tree illuminated with eco-friendly LED Christmas lights for the same period will use only 7.5 kilowatts! The energy savings is even more significant for the many homes who decorate the outside of their homes with environmentally friendly LED Christmas lights. A single string of LED Holiday Lights uses a little more than 4 watts. For comparison purposes, a typical light bulb uses 75 watts, a compact fluorescent uses about 15 or 20 watts.
Save Resources -
In addition to the energy savings offered by LED string lighting, the product is also more earth-friendly because of its long life-cycle. The LED string lighting will last for 50,000 – 100,000 hours or more! This means that the average household will need to replace and dispose of their Christmas lighting much less often. Your LED Holiday lights should last for as long as 20 years! LEDs just don't burn out! So you save this money in energy savings every Christmas! And every time you would otherwise need to buy new lights. The reason they last so long is that LEDs use light emitting diodes (not incandescence) to produce their light. So, there are no filaments to burn out; and therefore, no bulbs to replace. Just plug in your Christmas lights. Nothing to come loose. No bulbs to burn out.
Save Money -
Green Home used two methodologies to determine the cost savings of LED Christmas lights. The first starts with the amount of Christmas lights and calculates savings based on that. The second is based on an assessment of electricity costs:
Method 1 – Assuming you use 5 strands for 5 hours / day for 30 days, that's 750 light hours, saving 70 watts each hour, or over 52 kilowatts. If you're paying 20 cents a kilowatt, that's over $10 each year. Assume you buy new lights every 3 years, and the LEDs last 15, then you won't be buying five strands four times, or 20 purchases. Assuming our LEDs cost $15 and regular lights cost $5, you pay $75 for the LEDs, and $100 for the regular ones. So you save $25. So over a 15 year period your total savings are $175.
Method 2 – Based on the recent national average cost of electricity, it will cost the average household $30.00 for a 30 day holiday season to illuminate a single Christmas tree with conventional incandescent string lights. In contrast, the cost to illuminate the same Christmas tree for the same period of time with eco-friendly LED string lighting would be $.50! This may not seem like a lot of money, but the average household typically illuminates more than just a single Christmas tree. Perhaps more important is the cost of the lights themselves. Because LED string lighting will last nearly 10 times longer than standard incandescent string lighting, this means the consumer will have to replace Christmas lights much less frequently. At an average cost of $5.99 per 25 lamp string of incandescent string lighting, the average household would spend approximately $300 on conventional holiday lights versus only $100 for eco-friendly LED lighting to last that same period.
Stay Safe -
According to the US Fire Administration, Christmas trees account for 200 fires annually, resulting in 6 deaths, 25 injuries and more than $6 million in property damage. One of the major causes is the lights!
LED string lights produce very little heat and remain cool to the touch even after hours of operation. As a result, LED lights are a safer option for your home, especially during the holidays, where they're used in close proximity to combustible materials such as Christmas trees. LED Holiday lights burn cool (you can hold them in your hand) and could not even light flash paper on fire.
Conventional holiday lights with incandescent lamps create light by heating conductive material. The use of LED lighting can greatly reduce the risk of accidental home fires during the holiday season, and create a safer, eco-friendly holiday experience for your family, pets and guests.
Also, since the bulbs are plastic, rather than glass, there's less chance of breaking lights while you're stringing them up. If you have concerns about lead in the cords of the lights, read our warning section below.
Be Green -
If the whole country used LED lighting vs. incandescent we would be able to shut down a significant number of our coal-fired power plants. Using LED lighting is one of the funnest, fastest ways to go green and tell the world. LED Christmas lights are incredibly pretty and eye-catching.
Green Home offers eco-friendly LED Holiday lights in the following styles:
And these new eco-friendly holiday and Christmas lights
which are available only on Greenhome.com:
Warnings about Lead in Holiday Lights -
WHY IS THERE A WARNING ABOUT LEAD?
If you've been shopping for holiday lights in California (or other states) this season, you may have noticed a warning label on them stating that they contain lead. They do.
The warning is required by the State of California's Proposition 65. This is a good California law that requires a warning label on any product containing a substance known to cause cancer or birth defects. Lead is listed as a carcinogen, but it's more widely associated with neurological damage.
WHY DO POWER CORDS CONTAIN LEAD?
Electrical cords are usually made of PVC plastic that contains a miniscule amount of lead. Lead is used in power cords because lead makes the plastic more flexible. That's why electrical cords rarely fray or break. The thought is that it's more dangerous to have a live electrical wire pumping 110 Hertz of electricity exposed than to have the coating contain a small amount of lead.
The labels became required on holiday lights, as well as on electronic equipment and cords on other consumer products such as hairdryers after a number of lawsuits were filed by an environmental advocacy organization in California. Green Home supports this legislation and is happy that there are more warnings about environmental dangers in the home. At the same time, it is important to consider what the true risks are given the alternatives. Here at Green Home, we often say that our products are greener (vs. greenest) than mainstream products. In this case, what makes our Christmas lights greener is that they use less money, energy and materials, and are safer. But they do contain lead.
HOW SAFE ARE LEAD POWER CORDS?
Even miniscule amounts of lead are dangerous, but typically this is if the lead is airborne, i.e. in dust form. The research we've done seems to indicate that there is minimal risk of lead from power cords interacting with humans in this fashion. Lead is a heavy metal, and there are no risk from lead vapors. The risk is from lead in the form of particulate matter.
Nonetheless, as is the case with so many environmental issues, we don't know! So what's the eco-conscious lover of Christmas or Chanukkah or just pretty colored lights to do? We have two suggestions:
1) Wrap the cord. You can wrap the cord, or at least the part of the cord that you will be interacting with on a regular basis, in electrical tape, or duct tape, or if you want, even in cloth.
2) Test for lead. We sell a lead test kit on Green Home or you can get one at your local hardware store. Since the amount of lead in the lights and other consumer products with warning labels may vary considerably, knowing how leady your cord is may provide some piece of mind.
Note: If you or your child or your pet chews on the power cord, it's far more likely that they will die from electrocution than from lead poisoning.
Bottom line: All or almost all power cords for all products contain some amount of lead. Christmas lights drew the attention of legislators and receive this warning. The risk of exposure to lead is in Green Home's opinion slight, and we are actively sourcing holiday lights with no lead content as soon as they become available. Everything but the power cord has zero lead content.
Final Note:
Do not assume that holiday lights that do not bear the warning label are lead-free. It is possible that the lights are not sold in California. California is the only state that requires the warning label. Older lights that have not been labeled may also contain lead.
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