Energy-Efficient LED Christmas Lights Gain Popularity

Posted by Jared Killeen on December 25, 2009 at 9:09 am

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is decorated with LED lights. (image: inhabitat.com)

As the old adage has it, Christmas is a time for giving. But considering the doleful state of the economy, one might well argue that, at least this year, Christmas ought to be a time for saving as well. As December 25 approaches, thousands of Americans have decided to replace their old incandescent holiday lights with energy-efficient, money-saving light-emitting diode (LED) lights, suggesting that, even during the season of abundance, one can be frugal as well as festive.

Sales data show that Americans are buying more LED lights than ever before. Jagdish Rebello, an electronics market analyst for iSuppli, says that LEDs will account for 25 to 50 percent of total holiday lights sales this year, despite the fact that LEDs can cost twice as much as traditional incandescent holiday lights. Indeed, Home Depot has announced a triple-digit increase in LED holiday-light sales over 2008, while Christmas Lights Etc., an online retailer, predicts a 200 percent increase in LED sales over 2008. Perhaps most telling is the fact that the nation’s most iconic Christmas trees—the humongous White House and Rockefeller trees—are decorated with LEDs.

Despite their higher price, there is much to recommend LEDs over their blinking incandescent competitors. Energy Star, a government energy-efficiency rating system for lighting and electronics, suggests that LEDs use up to 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light, and last up to 10 times longer. And while Consumer Reports found that some incandescent holiday lights burn more brightly than LEDs, the latter are “much more durable, ran cooler and posed a lower fire risk, and cost less to operate.”

This may augur well for LED lights in general. If consumers like them on their eaves and trees, they may want them in their homes year round. Susan Bloom, director of corporate communications for Philips Lighting, points out that “Holiday lighting is a starting point for consumers to trial LED lighting for the home.” Philips has already released a new line of LED bulbs for household sockets and—if this holiday season is any indication—other lighting companies are sure to follow suit.