The Christmas shopping season has begun early this year in most stores, and that can especially be seen in the larger chain stores. Home improvement stores are usually aiming for two holiday markets: the person shopping for that perfect holiday gift as well as the homeowner who is looking for new decorations to be used before the holiday. A lot of the larger hardware stores go all out during the holiday season, carrying a wider selection of lights and electric Christmas decorations than most other retail stores. One item that all the stores seem to push this time of year is LED Christmas lights.
Many stores are offering a discount towards the purchase of LED Christmas lights when you trade in your old Christmas light strings.
Many stores are now taking the buying of Christmas lights one step further this year: they’re encouraging people to turn in their old incandescent holiday Christmas lights in return for a rebate that goes towards the purchase of new energy-saving LED Christmas lights. Your old Christmas lights don’t even have to work!
These retail store Christmas Light Trade-In offers are being advertised as a “green” and environmentally friendly gesture, but the truth behind that claim may be arguable. We did a comparison of LED Christmas lights to regular Christmas lights to see if they really could save you money and energy. Some of the things we found:
LED Christmas Lights Are Expensive
LED Christmas lights are still much more expensive than regular incandescent Christmas lights. Saving $3 per strand of lights is good, but the LED lights will almost definitely still be more expensive than regular Christmas lights if you compare cord length or even number of bulbs to light sources per strand. In our Christmas light cost analysis we ran the numbers to see how much you really spend with LED Christmas lights.
Energy Usage
LED Christmas lights do use much less energy and they are much less expensive to run through a holiday season. But you probably need to use those LED lights for lots of seasons to even begin to get back the money you initially spent in purchasing them. Unless energy prices skyrocket in the next few years your LED Christmas lights will still have a “higher cost of ownership” when you consider energy cost as well as purchase price.
Longer Light Strands
Another advantage to the lower energy usage of LED Christmas lights is you can string more strands together without the increased risk of causing a fire. Incandescent lights can usually only go so far from the outlet before the wires are no longer rated for the length (due to electrical resistance) but LED lights can often be strung much farther from the outlet, giving you more creativity with your Christmas decoration designs.
Christmas Light Buy Back Programs Are Not All Green
LED Christmas lights are made of plastic and all those old Christmas lights you turn in are just going to end up in a landfill. Even those new LED lights will one day end up in a landfill, so the more Christmas lights you buy, the more trash you’re generating (that can be said about most things, though).
LED Christmas Light Brightness
LED Christmas light are not as bright as regular incandescent Christmas lights. This lack of brightness becomes more of an issue when you’re buying outdoor LED Christmas lights as opposed to indoor LED Christmas lights. Some people think LED lights have a “cold” feeling with no real twinkle.
LED Flicker
All but the most high end LED Christmas lights have slight flicker. Many people don’t notice this, but some viewers have sensitive eyes which can detect a faint flicker in most LED Christmas lights. You can get “flicker free” professional LED Christmas lights or use a “rectifier” in the electrical line, but they are a little more expensive and they are a little less energy efficient. There aren’t many places that you can find professional, flicker-free LED Christmas lights yet, but Amazon.com actually has a wide variety of commercial grade LED Christmas lights
available online.
If you’re going to use your Christmas lights for home decor all year long, then it’s definitely a good idea to look into professional grade lighting just for durability and safety.
If you have a new home and need to buy some Christmas lights for the first time, then by all means investigate what LED Christmas lights have to offer and whether or not they’re to your liking. But if you’re happy with your current incandescent Christmas lights and they’re all in good repair, then you might want to keep using them for while. You’ll save yourself some money and keep a few strands of Christmas lights out of the landfill!
I have been using the LED lights they are cool.