Lighting Up for Christmas

A year ago I was thrilled to find LED Christmas lights at clearance prices. This year I am getting a warm feeling at just how little energy these little guys use. So little, in fact, that you would be foolish to add a lamp timer to a string of these bulbs. It uses less power to keep them on all the time!

I hung a string of 20 LED Christmas lights in the kitchen and the package tells me the entire string uses about 2.4 watts of electricity. The typical household lamp timer uses 3 watts. Leaving the bulbs plugged in all the time without a timer uses less power!

Have you considered how many timers are running in your house, especially during the holidays? I'm not suggesting you leave on more lights all the time, but a 9 watt compact fluorescent light that you remember to turn on and off at odd times, would use, say, 12 hours of electricity, or 108 watt hours per day. That lamp with a timer that turns on for just 6 hours every day, would use 120 watt hours per day. Savings with a timer work for larger bulbs.

The new energy saver: the wall switch!