MYTH BUSTER

Myth Buster: Practise Christmas lights apply a lot of electricity?

Myth 1

Christmas lights apply a lot of electricity.

Myth 2

You will accept a high electric pecker if you put upwardly Christmas lights.

Dec 20, 2018

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Whether you dream of a 12ft lighted Christmas tree, a firm iced in blue and white lights, or colored lights covering the inside and exterior of your domicile – calorie-free decorations accept become a joyous way to illuminate the vacation season. And nevertheless, I hear people all throughout the holidays questioning the toll of information technology all and their rising electric beak. This fabricated me want to know… what is the bodily toll of powering holiday lights?

Analysis

To figure out the toll of vacation lighting, we tested three kinds of lights:

  • Mini lights
  • Mini LED lights
  • Ceramic C7 lights

Hooking these lights up to a smart plug, we monitored the lights electrical usage using the Powerley app and Free energy Bridge. We used this to determine how much energy each string of lights uses over a month (in this case we used the calendar month of December). We used the national average price per kWh of $0.13 to make up one's mind the price.

Results – Mini Lights

The mini lights are skilful for both indoor and outdoor lighting. They come in strings of 100 and each string uses 0.039 kWh per hour and 0.95 kWh per day. If you are like me and leave the firm in the morning when it is even so dark and return after dark, you lot probably feel the desire to only leave your lights on all day. Unfortunately, that does drive the toll up considerably. That equals $3.82 per calendar month for each cord of lights. At present, considering that information technology takes 700 lights to fill a 7ft tree, 1,000 for a 10ft tree and as much every bit two,000 for a 12ft tree, the toll of lighting essentially increases.

Once you add together this up, it could seem like a lot in extra expenses after buying the lights. But let'due south see how this changes with LEDs. Subsequently plugging in the LEDs nosotros found that they merely consume 0.0045 kWh per 60 minutes. This comes to 0.11 kWh per day and 3.41 kWh per calendar month. This means one strand only costs $0.44 per month. That is a savings of 88%! See how that savings impacts your tree'due south lighting.

Dwelling house automation can atomic number 82 to fifty-fifty more savings. To yet go to run into my lights on when I get out for work and come abode, I automated them using the Powerley app, to turn off when I exit the house at eight:00am and turn on when I am heading back habitation at 5:30pm. This reduces the time that they are consuming energy to 14.5 hours per day.

By automating my Christmas lights, I saved another 40% on electricity. But what most when it comes to bigger lights that pull more energy?

Results – Ceramic C7

The Ceramic C7 bulbs are bigger lights and are great to get that traditional holiday feeling. The string of bulbs we used to exam is 25ft long with 25 lights, meaning that you could need equally much equally 100 of these bigger bulbs to cover a 7ft tree.
These lights draw 130 Watts constantly. This translates to 0.13 kWh per hour, or 3.16 kWh per 24-hour interval and 97.96 kWh per month, with an boosted electrical toll of $12.73. Just when using the 4 strings of lights needed to cover a 7ft tree, information technology goes upwardly.

For comparison, this is more than than your monthly toll for a microwave, TV, and lighting for 4-5 rooms. With a 10ft tree, this would exist around 150 lights, costing $75.43 per month. Upgrade to a 12ft tree with 200 lights and you are paying around $100.58 per month.

While this is pretty expensive for holiday cheer, information technology doesn't accept to be. LEDs are known to reduce lighting expenses by lxxx-95%. Since moving from regular mini lights to mini LEDs reduced lighting expenses by 88%, the Ceramic C7 LEDs would nearly probable be the aforementioned. With that in mind, information technology would bring ability usage down to 0.0156 kWh per hr. This equates to 0.38 kWh per day and 11.78 kWh per month. This would price $ane.53 per strand of low-cal which brings monthly price to only $6.12 with 100 lights, $ix.eighteen with 150 lights, and $12.24 with 200 lights.

Applying the adjusted time of use schedule to the C7 LED lights means that power usage goes down to only 7.01 kWh a month per stand of lights which cost but $0.91. This means lighting a 7ft tree would only cost $3.64 per month. Lighting a 10ft tree would toll $5.64 per month. And lighting a 12ft tree would toll $seven.28 per calendar month. This increases to an virtually 93% savings compared to regular C7 lights running all twenty-four hours!

So, the reply . . . Christmas lights don't have to use a lot of energy. By using LED lights and putting your lights on an automated schedule, you can reduce the price of holiday lighting to take a minimal touch on on your electrical bill.