LED Christmas lights

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Boomer23

Boomer23

Well-known member
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
3,561
Location
Orange County, CA
I just put up our outdoor LED lights and now that I have a Kill A Watt, I'm able to measure the power usage for these lights. We put up eight strings of LED lights and they are using only 19 Watts! That's less than a 20 Watt bulb for our whole display!

Used seven hours a night, that's only 4 kWh for the month.

We discarded all of our old incandescent Christmas lights two years ago and we're all LED for both inside and outside Christmas lights now. A quick search showed that the lowest wattage incandescent Christmas lights are 5 Watts each, so the savings is quite large.

I suggest that you consider making a similar change. The Watts you save will be able to power your LEAF for free.
 
Boomer23 said:
I just put up our outdoor LED lights and now that I have a Kill A Watt, I'm able to measure the power usage for these lights. We put up eight strings of LED lights and they are using only 19 Watts! That's less than a 20 Watt bulb for our whole display!

Used seven hours a night, that's only 4 kWh for the month.

We discarded all of our old incandescent Christmas lights two years ago and we're all LED for both inside and outside Christmas lights now. A quick search showed that the lowest wattage incandescent Christmas lights are 5 Watts each, so the savings is quite large.

I suggest that you consider making a similar change. The Watts you save will be able to power your LEAF for free.
Click to expand...

Just did the same at my house. Daughter just plugged them in for the first time, they look great!
 
Ready2plugin said:
Boomer23 said:
I just put up our outdoor LED lights and now that I have a Kill A Watt, I'm able to measure the power usage for these lights. We put up eight strings of LED lights and they are using only 19 Watts! That's less than a 20 Watt bulb for our whole display!

Used seven hours a night, that's only 4 kWh for the month.

We discarded all of our old incandescent Christmas lights two years ago and we're all LED for both inside and outside Christmas lights now. A quick search showed that the lowest wattage incandescent Christmas lights are 5 Watts each, so the savings is quite large.

I suggest that you consider making a similar change. The Watts you save will be able to power your LEAF for free.
Click to expand...

Just did the same at my house. Daughter just plugged them in for the first time, they look great!
Click to expand...

Plus, they last forever! (or as close as forever is in lighting)
 
I switched last year - one of my strings is already 1/4-burned-out this year and I haven't taken the time to troubleshoot...so yeah, bulbs may last forever but they're still dependent on shotty Chinese quality control processes around the mechanical side of things.

Reminds me of when I switched to CFLs inside... the first few years were filled with bad bulbs that didn't even come close to lasting as long as standard incandescents... I probably replaced 30 of them under warranty over a 3-4 year period before the replacements starting lasting as long as the hype said they would.

Also just switched back to incandescents this year inside the home... hate the way crummy white-LED lights look inside...no warmth. One of the benefits of having a large PV system - you can waste electricity like it's going out of style and it's even better for the environment then CFLs (no mercury). :)
 
I picked up 20 strings of LED lights on black friday at home depot for $1.58 a string (no kidding). One of the strings was DOA, but the rest are up and running. I have them on a timer but I'm wondering if the clock motor is using more juice than it would take to just leave the lights on all the time.

Same concerns here about durability, particularly have gone so cheap. I came across an article detailing all the intricacies of LED Christmas lights and it wore me down... resistors, rectified vs non rectified, flicker, blah blah blah. Hopefully everything that can go wrong doesn't.

I too made a significant investment in CFLs, including about 20 phillips dimmable high-hat bulbs for $13 apiece. The all failed within a couple years. Sent some back and phillips reimbursed me, but grew weary of dealing with that. I wonder some times if the gas I burned to go get them emitted more CO2 and wasted more energy than they ever saved.

The incandescent light bulb is a lot like the internal combustion engine... incredibly antiquated technology but still tough to beat.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
I picked up 20 strings of LED lights on black friday at home depot for $1.58 a string (no kidding). One of the strings was DOA, but the rest are up and running. I have them on a timer but I'm wondering if the clock motor is using more juice than it would take to just leave the lights on all the time.

Same concerns here about durability, particularly have gone so cheap. I came across an article detailing all the intricacies of LED Christmas lights and it wore me down... resistors, rectified vs non rectified, flicker, blah blah blah. Hopefully everything that can go wrong doesn't.

I too made a significant investment in CFLs, including about 20 phillips dimmable high-hat bulbs for $13 apiece. The all failed within a couple years. Sent some back and phillips reimbursed me, but grew weary of dealing with that. I wonder some times if the gas I burned to go get them emitted more CO2 and wasted more energy than they ever saved.

The incandescent light bulb is a lot like the internal combustion engine... incredibly antiquated technology but still tough to beat.
Click to expand...

When we moved to a different place, we replaced EVERY (close to 100) incadescent in our home with low wattage cfls, some as low as 4W. In four years time so far, we've only lost two and one of those was a dimmable recessed bulb. They only have one more year left on the warranty, but I can barely wait for the prices to come down on LEDs so I can replace all the cfls.
 
A friend has my kill-a-watt and said his tree with mini-incandescents pulled 500w! His new outdoor iclcle strings are LED and pulled 27w.

My garage and "shed" each have a string of 25 LEDs inside, left plugged in all year.

For a little thrill, swing the end of your string in a circle when on, you'll see the 60 cycles per second strobe because cheap lights don't have a rectifier bridge to keep 'em on all the time.
 
sdbonez said:
Also just switched back to incandescents this year inside the home... hate the way crummy white-LED lights look inside...no warmth.
Click to expand...
Make sure to always check the color temperature when you buy your bulbs. LEDs come with different color spectrums just like CFLs. Some LEDs look nice and warm, some others are cool white, but my favorite ones are 5500K, approaching daylight spectrum and the light is so pleasant and easy to see by.
 
sjfotos said:
Plus, they last forever! (or as close as forever is in lighting)
Click to expand...
"Forever" is not that long, especially if the LEDs are low-quality. I have LED night lights that come on when it's dark, and the LEDs in them keep growing dimmer over time. Granted, that's 8-10 hours lit time every night, much much more lit time than Xmas tree lights will ever see, but still, it's not forever.
 
I put up 350 LED Holiday icicle lights this past year and I'm still lighting 'em because all those bulbs are only using about 40W! We now have the brightest display even though these are called 'warm white'. All the neighbors are still burning incandescents at over 500W and they aren't nearly as bright. I feel like Chevy Chase from his Christmas movie. :lol:
 
Early in the season I bought several sets of solar powered LED lights. Each string has about 30 tiny blue-white lights. They looked great on a bush in the front. I hope to get some more next year. Next year, we hope to charge them up on a sunny day and then use the lights to decorate our LEAF. We have a large neighborhood called Winterhaven, in which every house is decorated big time. Most nights are "walkers only" but a few nights you can drive through. That could be fun.
 
aqn said:
sjfotos said:
Plus, they last forever! (or as close as forever is in lighting)
Click to expand...
"Forever" is not that long, especially if the LEDs are low-quality. I have LED night lights that come on when it's dark, and the LEDs in them keep growing dimmer over time. Granted, that's 8-10 hours lit time every night, much much more lit time than Xmas tree lights will ever see, but still, it's not forever.
Click to expand...


mmm....interesting. I love my LEDs and they look the same after 3 years as they did at the beginning, which is better than I am doing :)
 
Just a note that I feel responsible to post as the OP for this thread. It's time to take your Christmas lights down.

Please make a note of it.

Thank you.
 
Boomer23 said:
Just a note that I feel responsible to post as the OP for this thread. It's time to take your Christmas lights down.

Please make a note of it.

Thank you.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately, my roof has acquired an untimely coating of snow......so, while I have unplugged them, they remain, sadly, and firmly attached :(

Of course, were I Orthodox and on the Julian Calendar, I could claim an exemption :)
 
Boomer23 said:
sjfotos said:
, while I have unplugged them, they remain, sadly, and firmly attached :(
Click to expand...

Under the circumstances, that will suffice. But do consider, once conditions are safe, taking them down come Spring. :roll:
Click to expand...


:)

I'm looking at a blowtorch if the snow is not gone next weekend -----
 

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