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Can you save some money using LED Christmas Lights? The Handyguys discuss LED, mini-incandescent and C9 and C7 Christmas lights.
LED Energy Savings
This podcast was inspired by an article Handyguy Brian read on the Fox News Website entitled Good Return on Investment: LED Holiday Lights. Are they really a good investment? Perhaps, perhaps not! Do the Handyguys dare to disagree with Fox New reporting? In the name of fair and balanced, the Handyguys discuss the energy savings of LED Christmas lights.
Yes – LED Christmas lights save energy. According to the article, you will save about 71.4 cents per 100 light string per season.
How about return on investment? You decide. Handyguy Brian went by the True Value and picked up a 300 light set for $39. That is a projected savings of $2.14 per season. Assuming Brian needed to buy new incandescent strings every 3 years due to failure, assuming $15 each time, and assuming that the LEDs lasted the advertised 20,000 hours (129 years at 155 hours per season), the ROI would 5 years. If ROI was calculated only on energy savings, the ROI would be more like 18 years!
Bottom line, buy quality, name brand, LED lights with a warranty. Save the info about how to file a warranty claim for your LEDs.
The Colored and the Whites
What about white lights versus colored lights? The Handyguys discuss an old article by a radio talk show host Michael Smerconish. Michael has said
White lights are boring.
White lights are sedate.
White lights are pretentious.
White lights are for fakers.
White lights are un-Christmas.
Wow, Michael, tell us how you really feel! Read Michael’s articles “Enough with the white Christmas, already!” and The Coloreds and The Whites
Also discussed are the older style C9 and C7 lights.
Listen to the podcast for all the lively discussion.
We were one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. We have been compensated for our time commitment to the program as well as our writing about our experience. We have also been compensated for the materials needed for our DIY project. However, our opinions are entirely our own and we have not been paid to publish positive comments.
We also still have C-9 lights outside. But, I can’t find white replacement bulbs anywhere! We use “colored” bulbs too, but here and there we have a “whitey”, and also a few “flashers” sprinkled in.
Years ago, I took these strings of c-9s, and stapled them to 8 ft sections of 1 by 2 furring strips (which I painted black). I then used hooks and eyes to hang these strips just behind the facia of the eaves. This way the bulb hangs just below the facia, and the wood strips are hidden behind the facia. I wired outlets under the eaves that are on a separate 20 amp breaker and are controlled by a switch in our laundry room.
So, over these past 10 years or so, it only takes me 20 minutes each year to hang all of the outside lights on the house. When I take them down at the end of the season, I just bundle all of the 8 ft strips together, and hang the bundle from the garage ceiling for storage.
The bulbs seem to last pretty well, but the colored paint on them does get scratched sometimes in handling them.
So far, I’m not a fan of the LEDs. They do seem less bright, and like you said, it’s hard to know which brand will be brighter and have true colors.
Have a great Holiday!!
Hi
The LED Christmas Lights are really a very useful to save the energy i like it so much i use it at my home it looks so beautiful in night when illuminates i like it very much thanks a lot for sharing the such nice information