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LED Christmas Lights Save Energy, Lower Fire Danger

Updated: Wednesday, October 31 2012, 03:46 PM CDT
Forest Dennis in Elgin is the Christmas light guy.  He has dressed his house in decorations for the last six years.


In a couple of weeks, he'll have about a dozen other friends within the community sprinkled across the yard giving his house the holiday touch it needs.

"I would say about a 180 man hours goes into putting up the display here," Dennis said.

It takes a lot of power to run it. That's why he's decided to change his bulbs to the newer LED bulbs.

"Now that I'm converting over to LEDs, I could probably run the entire show on two circuits where I was using eight before," Dennis said.

The older incandescent lights take a lot of heat to stay lit. And if the wiring becomes stripped, heat can transfer to whatever is in its path. And that can be a fire danger.

"They all have the same benefits as the other," Home Depot's Sam Samudio said.  "They're cooler to the touch which helps reduce fire risk. You can connect more together and they have a plastic bulb instead of a glass bulb."

There are even companies out there promoting the use of LEDs over incandescent by offering an exchange program.

"Customers bring in any of their old incandescent Christmas lights to the Home Depot and in return they get a coupon for our newer led rated lights," Samudio said.

LED lights are more expensive to purchase at first. But in the long run, they'll save you what you spent and some.  Dennis says he will save about 10 percent on his energy bill.

The Home Depot exchange program runs through Nov. 14.

By Jordan Steele
LED Christmas Lights Save Energy, Lower Fire Danger