Comments on: Are LED Christmas Lights Really more Cost Effective?

By: ChetMC

ChetMC — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:39:40 +0000

I don’t like the look of most LED lights. Electricity is less than $0.07 per kwh where we live. I’ve pretty sure that we live too far north for the solar lights to work too (our backyard solar lights only got enough light to work in the summer). All things considered, we went for the traditional bulbs when we bought new Christmas lights.

By: How Much Does Unplugging Appliances Really Save ?

How Much Does Unplugging Appliances Really Save ? — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:30:45 +0000

[...] pursued a similar question a few years back when I wondered if LED Christmas Lights Are Really more Cost Effective? This time though, I’m busy. I don’t feel like doing the math, and quite frankly I [...]

By: Recessed Lighting Guide

Recessed Lighting Guide — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:46:28 +0000

I agree it’s difficult to justify the costs of LEDs over conventional incandescent christmas lightings since it’s rather seasonal in nature. But for regular household lighting, LEDs may have a greater advantage. For example, a few months ago when I was remodeling my living room with recessed lighting, LEDs is the clear winner although they cost very much more. My rationale? I’ll be expecting to use them more often and hence, the break even period is likely shorter. I bought my lights online and there were some great savings. Besides, it’s a great way to my part for the environment

Cheers,
Dan

By: Celeste

Celeste — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:41:18 +0000

I bought LED lights to replace my halogen MR16 bulbs the other day from a website called Eaglelight.com that I would recommend enthusiastically. They had good service (good phone and email support), great FAQs so I knew what I needed, and competitive prices; also, their shipping was fast and the LEDs were as good as advertised. http://www.Eaglelight.com. Very good online shopping site.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:11:06 +0000

Heidi,

You are correct when you say LED lights will save you money over the long haul. LED’s are simply more efficient (about 80% more efficient), I plan on buying some after the holidays. I just couldn’t believe they cost 4 times more than incandescent bulbs when I saw them in the store. I know that a lot of people will buy them at full price anyway because they’re more energy efficient and save money, but I’d like to see more people stop and think it through first… then buy when the lights are 50-75% off

I have seen the solar lights, though I haven’t seen them in use. I’m curious about them as well. I see many people with the solar walkway lights, and they seem to work well. I imagine it’s much the same, though I’m not sure how much sunlight they require.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:47:49 +0000

This is great However, I would tend to disagree with your conclusion as well. I am still using light strands that are around 10 years old. I would use that in my calculation (not just how long it takes me – but how much it saves over the course of the entire lifespan of the lights). Using 10 years you would save money. I do think it is worth waiting until after the Christmas season though to get the sales!

Have you seen the solar LED lights? I am wondering if those would pay off – the ease of not having to plug them in would be worth a bit of “convenience money” to me as well. I’ll have to apply your math to it

By: MoneyGrubbingLawyer

MoneyGrubbingLawyer — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:57:32 +0000

My engineer wife ran similar calculations last year- I leave the math stuff to her! Our results were similar to yours, although they came out in favour of LED because of 1) a slightly higher power cost, 2) longer expected daily usage, and 3) coupons for savings on the new LEDs. I think our break even time worked out to be about 3 years, but given that the strings we were replacing were about 10 years old, we assumed that we’d be keeping our new lights for a while.

I’m pleased with the LEDs, if for no other reason than they’re much harder to break!