It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Everywhere I go. Take a look at this display, it’s so beautiful, with candy canes and…! Oh hey there friends, I didn’t see you. It’s me again Sparkle, just sitting here planning out Christmas light displays in Gainesville for a few friends of mine. And okay, yeah, you caught me too. Sometimes I like to change up the song lyrics of classic Christmas songs. My co-workers at the North Pole are always shocked by the way I can come up with new twists on the oldies. Do you know what else can sometimes feel shocking? Your power bill the month after the holidays. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be! Many homeowners have wondered how much electricity lights require. This will, in turn, sometimes lead them to skip hanging Christmas lights simply because they don’t know!
But, when you work with the professionals at Twinkle Nights, your lighting installation won’t lead to a power-bill shock! Let’s find out why together!
First, what type of lights are we talking about?
One of the reasons that you may have a higher-than-expected power bill after the holidays is if you’re using the wrong type of light. I’m talking about old-fashioned incandescent Christmas lights. These use a lot of power, and if your entire light display is made up of these, well…yeah, it’s going to cost a lot more.
A far better option is energy-efficient LED Christmas lights. My friends at Twinkle Nights only use this type, and in most cases, they use the outdoor-friendly C9 bulbs hung with professional-grade hooks.
LED lights use about 80% less energy than incandescent lights. To give you an idea of what your personal savings might look like, compare your January power bill to your December one. Whatever the increase was, take about 80% off of that!
Landscape lights can eat up electricity if you’re not careful
However, many people across Gainesville like to use lights in their landscaping too. These can be as simple as path lighting (which I’ll talk about in a minute) to flood lights to simply lighting a wicker tree year-round. Each of these types of landscape lights has its own power demands.
For example, a flood light with 60 lumens of power can cost you…virtually nothing! That’s because these often rely on solar power, which is renewable and free.
However, if you’re planning to light a wicker tree on your porch or some of your shrubs, remember the LED versus incandescent comments I just made. LEDs can save you upward of 80% if you use this style of light.
Path lighting
Path lights come in both solar-powered and wired varieties. Like flood lights, solar-powered options will only cost you the price of the unit itself! One of their downsides is that these are sometimes less bright than wired lights.
So how much electricity do those types of lights require? A typical 70-lumen LED path light will use about 3 watts of power per hour of usage.
Seasonal displays
And now we come to the elephant in the room: how much electricity do seasonal display lights require? As with anything else, it will depend on your specific setup. Some examples of seasonal displays (outside of Christmas, that is!) are:
- Halloween lights;
- Wedding lights, and;
- Party lights.
Each of these has a relatively limited use — most people don’t get married each month, unless you live in Hollywood! LED lights will save you here as well. Here are a few quick comparisons:
- Mini incandescent lights use about .4 of a watt per bulb vs .07 for an LED counterpart.
- Incandescent C9 bulbs use 5 watts per bulb vs .09 for an LED counterpart.
So, a quick way to find out how much electricity your lights will require is to use the above rates and multiply it times the number of bulbs you’ll be using.
Patio lights Are Electricity Efficient Already
The last type of lights I want to talk about before I get into my favorite is patio lights. These are growing in popularity, with many homeowners working with my friends at Twinkle Nights to install permanent lights across their backyards.
So how much electricity do these types of lights require? Edison bulbs are a popular option, and they cost about 3 watts per bulb. However, these are usually only in use when you’re using your backyard, making string lights a great investment for your home.
To be clear, “Edison bulbs” are a bit misleading. They should be named Edison-style bulbs because — you guessed it — all current bulbs that look “vintage” are powered by LEDs. In fact, recent rules enacted by the U.S. government mean that incandescent bulbs will be hard to find. They’ve been replaced with LEDs, even when the lights appear to be incandescent, because of their reliability and ease of use.
Christmas lights
And now we’ve come to my favorite part! How much electricity do lights for your home require? Well, in a way we’ve kinda already covered many of those details. LEDs can save you upward of 80% over incandescents. So, if you’re still using the same light strand you’ve had since the 90s, it’s time to recycle those string lights and switch to energy-efficient LEDs.
The average home light display will use about 10 to 20 strings, though that can vary depending on how elaborate you are with your design. Holiday lights for your home can be a great way to get into the festive spirit, and by using LEDs you’ll save a ton of money!
And for business owners or community leaders, you shouldn’t feel left out of the celebrations either. Holiday lights for your business use the same principles as for homes, with many using Christmas light displays as a way of boosting sales during the latter months of the year.
Minimizing how much electricity your lights will require
I guess if you’re looking for a simple way of saying it, LED lights are far more efficient displays yet equally as beautiful as traditional incandescent. LEDs are much more cost-effective than just a few years ago, and when you have them professionally installed, they can minimize how much electricity you use with your holiday lights.
One final way to save time and money (as well as a few headaches) is to work with my friends at Twinkle Nights. They can help you come up with displays that will stand out from the crowd while using all energy-efficient options to save you money. Contact Tom and his team by sending them a message here!
And now it’s time to get back to work. Take care, my friends!
Here are some other resources to help light up your holiday season!
