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Nov 20, 2007 9:36 am US/Eastern
New Holiday Lights Save Money, Energy
MINNEAPOLIS (CBS) ―
Soon Christmas trees will be ablaze all over the nation. Have you ever wondered what it costs to run all those lights?
"The new lighting technology is much more energy efficient," said Michael Noble, Executive Director of Fresh Energy, a non-profit organization focused on energy efficiency based in Minnesota.
He says we should be looking for LED Christmas lights, which stands for Light Emitting Diode. These lights do not have filaments or bulbs like traditional lights.
"They reduce energy use by 99 percent from the lights many of us grew up with," said Noble.
In fact, lighting up 10 strings of the large bulbs six hours a day for a month burns up $50 in electricity costs, the more common mini-lights cost $5 to run for a month, but the LED lights set us back just 50 cents. The catch is that they cost more initially, often twice as much as mini-lights.
"But the LED lights are actually less expensive because they consume ten times less energy and they last much longer," said Noble. "The LED lights are much more durable and more reliable because there's no filament to burn out."
The manufacturers say the LED lights last up to 20 times longer than the mini-lights.
"LED technology is the better investment," said Noble.
It can save us money and help save the planet. If we replaced all those large Christmas bulbs with LED lights we would save 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. That's enough to power 200,000 homes for one year.
"That's extra power plants not being built," said Noble.
This isn't just about Christmas lights. Many energy experts say LED will eventually replace the lights in our homes and offices. By buying LED Christmas lights, we are helping jump start a new technology that can save energy and cut down on pollution.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
