Energy-efficient LED Christmas Lights

Don’t forget your primary colors when planning your holiday display

filkertus — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:48:20 +0000

Primary colors are a set of three colors that are used to create a variety of different colors. The primary colors are red, blue, and green. I always thought that primary colors involved some physical property of light. However, it is not a physical property of light; rather, but are related to the physical response of the human eye to light. This is because humans are trichromats; that is, we have 3 color receptors in our eye. What this means is that when the human eye responds to light stimulous it is always interpreted in terms of the three primary colors.

As result some of the most striking holiday lighting displays include a strong presence of the primary colors. For example, even if you prefer a traditional holiday display using only white Christmas lights you could make the display more visually attractive and stimulating to the human eye by adding some accent color using blue Christmas lights. The same improved visual effect can be created by using red Christmas lights and green Christmas lights as well.

Create more attractive displays with net lights

filkertus — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:12:27 +0000

Decorating bushes is always a difficult chore. I have seen some many different strategies for installing Christmas lights on bushes and shrubs–most of them don’t look very good. Some people try to wrap the bushes using a horizontal pattern and some people use a vertical pattern. Other people seem to have no pattern at all. In all cases, one thing is constant: the lights look uneven, unorganized and unprofessional. I am sure that a professional Christmas light installer could do this properly and has some special technique, but for most of us we need a simple solution.

Fortunately, there is a very simple solution–net lights. Net lights are great because they make installation a no-brainer. Net lights also ensure that the lights will be evenly spaced on the bush and have a professional appearance. Perhaps most importanly, they are easy to install. While it may take you 30 minutes to decorate a average sized bush with standard Christmas lights it can be done in minutes with net lights.

Installer review of new Flex-Change LED Christmas lights

filkertus — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:05:02 +0000

Most high quality LED Christmas lights that were offered last year had non-replaceable bulbs. Lower quality products with replaceable bulbs were offered by the big box stores. The replaceable bulb products offered by the large retailers were inferior because the internal components were not made of non-corrosive materials. This year a new product with non-corrosive replaceable bulbs is available. Holiday Lights Express, a Christmas light installation company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan recently put this product to the test. Here’s the review…

Energy Star Approved Christmas Lights

filkertus — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:08:21 +0000

Many LED Christmas lights that we offered last year claimed to be Energy Star approved. However, last year there were no Christmas light sets on the market which were ENERGY STAR approved. Some of them were ENERGY STAR “qualified” which means the lights met the basic requirements of the program. This year several retailers will offer ENERGY STAR approved LED Christmas lights.

Light sets approved by the program use 75% or less electricity than standard incandescent lights. Christmas is still a ways off but when you begin shopping for holiday lights this year keep you eye open for ENERGY STAR approved LED Christmas lights.

All LED Christmas lights are not alike

filkertus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:46:45 +0000

As with most products there are varying degrees of quality in LED Christmas lights. It is important for consumers to understand a few key differences between the LED Christmas lights that currently available.

The biggest difference between LED light sets involves the nature of the LED units themselves. All LED lights flicker; that is, LED lights turn on and off at a high rate of speed. Lower quality Christmas lights using LEDs (which are sold in most big box retail stores) are known as 1/2 wave or non-rectified. Non-rectified LED Christmas lights flicker at a rate of 60 hertz per second. Although 60 hertz is very fast it is still dectable by the human eye. Thus, most people can detect a faint flickering in non-rectified sets of LED string lights. This flickering effect is most pronounced when the observer or the light itself are moving. This is the most common complaint from consumers about LED Christmas lights. So if you are concerned about the flicker look for flicker-free LED Christmas lights.

Higher quality LED light sets are fully rectified. This means that the lights turn on and off at a rate of 120 hertz per second. Although these lights sets still flicker like the non-rectified sets, they flicker so fast that it is not detectable by the human eye. The rectified LED lights also are about 30-40% brighter. The only downside of the rectified LED sets is that they are slightly less efficient. This is because the LED is illuminated twice as much as it flickers at double the rate of the rectified sets. However, the decreased efficiency is nominal.

The other thing to consider about LED holiday lights is whether to purchase a set with replaceable or non-replaceable bulbs. Most of the light sets that were sold in the big box stores last year featured replaceable bulbs. Although LED lights last a very long time and replacement will likely not be necessary, having the ability to replace a bulb seems to be a concern for many consumers. The problem with most of the sets with replaceable bulbs is that the internal components of the light set are not corrision resistant. The nature of a replaceable bulb unit is such that moisture will enter the light socket. If the internal components are not corrosion resistant the light set will fail quickly if used outdoors or in a moist environment. If you prefer a light set with replaceable bulbs be sure that you select a light set with corrosion resistant interanl components. New high-quality LED Christmas light sets with replaceable and interchangeable bulbs are available. These light sets not only feature non-corresive internal components but also allow the user to create custom sets since all of the bulbs are interchangeable.

Offer of free Christmas lights receives artic response

filkertus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:43:50 +0000

Lots of communities across the country are evaluating their energy consumption. I recently read an article online about Fairbanks, Alaska’s efforts to reduce their energy consumption. An article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that the city spent over $800,000 on electricity last year and that nearly all of it was for street lighting. As many of you may know, Fairbanks remains dark for most of the day during the winter so it makes sense that the utility bill would be steep even for a smaller town like Fairbanks.

The city engineer established an energy audit team to try to find solutions to the problem. The team discussed eliminating certain “non-critical” street lights. Others mentioned considering energy-efficient alternatives to the existing lamps. The audit team also stated that they didn’t think they could justify putting up Christmas lights this year in consideration of the existing energy problem.

HolidayLEDs.com offered to donate 4 cases of LED Christmas lights to the city so that they could retain the Christmas light display with very little impact on energy consumption. The offer was received well by the Fairbanks community but not by the City’s leadership. Mayor Strle, replied to the offer with a firm rebuff: ““The city of Fairbanks isn’t about to be the next poster child for a LED holiday lighting company. Perhaps the Mayor felt embarrassed about the cities’ energy issues. She shouldn’t feel that way because we are all feeling the energy pinch. To the contrary, she and her staff should be commended for taking action to resolve the problem and shouldn’t be weary of accepting a genuine offer of support from a company that whose business is energy-efficient lighting.

The offer and the Mayor’s subsequent public rejection has created a lot of controversie in the Fairbanks online community. Hopefully this will not prevent the City from reconsidering the offer.

HolidayLEDs.com responded that the offer was still open and that it would like to donate the lights to the community even if not accepted by the City. The company will solicit suggestions for prospective donees and conduct an online vote if the Mayor does not accept the offer.

What are LED Christmas lights?

filkertus — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:14:19 +0000

Decorating for the holidays with string lighting has been going on for over 100 years. In fact, the tradition of decorating an evergreen tree with lighting pre-dates the invention of electricity. However, it wasn’t until after the light bulb and electricity became readily available did holiday lighting become wide spread. Since that time anyone decorating their Christmas tree, house, business, or community has used incandescent holiday lights. Incandescent lighting is extremely inefficient and does not last very long.

In recent years Christmas light manufacturers began to offer tradition Christmas lights with a new technology: L.E.D. LED stands for light emitting diode. Diodes are used in many modern electronics for various applications. In the early seventies this technology was further developed to create a light producting diode and it began to be used in instrument control panels because it lasted so long. LEDs are 80-99% more efficient than standard incandescent lighting and can last for 50,000 hours or more.

In a Christmas light application they also add other benefits including safety and durability. LEDs are much safer to use than incandescent Christmas lights because they produce very little heat and draw very little power. This decreased the risk of fire from direct combustion or overloaded electrical circuits. The lights are also extremley durable because they do not use a glass bulb and are nearly indestructible.

LED Christmas lights are now widely available at reasonable prices and make a great choice for holiday and decorative lighting.