LED LIGHTS MAKE
YOUR HOLIDAY GREENER
LED LIGHTS MAKE
YOUR HOLIDAY GREENER
Twinkling lights on trees and houses are an icon of the holiday season, but their energy consumption might put a damper on your celebratory mood: this year’s holiday lights could generate as much global warming pollution as about 250,000 cars, according to UCS research. Most of this electricity is needlessly wasted, because the mini and C-7 incandescent lights used by most homeowners are only about 10 percent efficient.
There are a variety of ways to decorate the home without using electricity, but families who enjoy the look or tradition of holiday lights can save money and help protect the environment by switching to LED (light-emitting diode) holiday lights. LEDs employ semiconductor technology to convert electricity into light directly, resulting in significant energy savings. An LED uses approximately 0.04 watt of electricity, compared with 0.45 watt for a mini incandescent light bulb and 7 watts for a C-7 incandescent bulb.
LEDs provide several other benefits as well:
Regardless of which bulbs you use to light up your holiday, you can maximize their efficiency by plugging them into an automatic timer and using mirrors and tinsel around indoor lights to increase the lighting effects.
Written by: Union of Concerned Scientists . The
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