Light the way to a greener holiday

Last night was the 80^th lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City, marking for many the start of the holiday season. But did you know the 80-foot tree will be decked in more than 30,000 light-emitting diode (LED) string lights? The tree is an inspiring sight, and the use of energy-efficient LED lights, which have been used on the tree since 2007, is a reminder of one of the many ways to be green during the holidays.

We’ve long been fans of LED lights. For many uses, including holiday decorating, LEDs offer benefits that traditional, incandescent lights can’t beat:

• Consume less energy. ENERGY STAR light strings, which commonly feature LED lights, use 70% less energy than the conventional incandescent counterpart. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, if everyone in the U.S. used string lights this holiday season, the country would save more than 700 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, equivalent to eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions from almost 100,000 cars for a year.
• Last longer. The LED lights you buy today could be the same strings you hang 40 years from now.
• Safer. LED lights stay cool and along with these tips will help ease worries about the safe use of holiday lights.
• Sturdier. LED sting lights are less likely to break because the lenses of the lights are made with epoxy rather than glass.

And, if your holiday decorating style has been compared to Clark Griswold’s in “Christmas Vacation,” you’ll definitely want to go with LED lights, as you can connect up to 25 strings of LED lights end-to-end without blowing a fuse.

Do you use LED string lights for holiday decorations? Would you consider switching from incandescent to LED string lights? Tell us about your plans to keep the holiday season green.