{"id":2999,"date":"2023-08-18T15:25:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T19:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twinklenights.com\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2023-11-09T13:41:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:41:03","slug":"electricity-how-much-do-christmas-lights-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twinklenights.com\/2023\/08\/18\/electricity-how-much-do-christmas-lights-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricity: How Much Do Christmas Lights Use?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019<\/span>s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Everywhere I go. Take a look at this display, it\u2019<\/span>s so beautiful, with candy canes and\u2026! Oh hey there friends, I didn\u2019<\/span>t see you. It\u2019<\/span>s me again\u00a0Sparkle<\/span><\/a>, 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.\u00a0Do you know what else can sometimes feel shocking? Your power bill the month after the holidays.\u00a0The thing is, it doesn<\/i>\u2019<\/span>t have to be!<\/i>\u00a0Many homeowners have wondered how much electricity lights require. This will, in turn, sometimes lead them to skip hanging Christmas lights simply because they don\u2019<\/span>t know!<\/p>\n

But, when you work with the professionals at Twinkle Nights, your lighting installation won\u2019<\/span>t lead to a power-bill shock! Let\u2019<\/span>s find out why together!<\/p>\n

First, what type of lights are we talking about?<\/b><\/h2>\n

One of the reasons that you may have a higher-than-expected power bill after the holidays is if you\u2019<\/span>re using the wrong type of light. I\u2019<\/span>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\u2026yeah, it\u2019<\/span>s going to cost a lot more.<\/p>\n

A far better option is\u00a0energy-efficient LED Christmas lights<\/span><\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

Landscape lights can eat up electricity if you’re not careful<\/b><\/h2>\n

However, many people across Gainesville like to use lights in their landscaping too. These can be as simple as path lighting (which I\u2019<\/span>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.<\/p>\n

For example, a flood light with 60 lumens of power can cost you\u2026virtually nothing! That\u2019<\/span>s because these often rely on solar power, which is renewable and free.<\/p>\n

However, if you\u2019<\/span>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.<\/p>\n

Path lighting<\/b><\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Seasonal displays\"Dryers<\/b><\/h2>\n

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:<\/p>\n