The holiday season is here, and you’re undoubtedly starting to see more and more homes showcasing their festive cheer with outdoor Christmas lighting. Or perhaps you’ve already begun adorning your home and yard with Christmas decorations and lighting. Maybe you’re bound and determined to create the most mesmerizing display of Christmas lights in your neighborhood by taking after the fictional Clark Griswold in the Movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” by bedecking your home with 250 strands of Christmas lights. If so, how much will your utility company charge you to power 25,000 Christmas lights?

With decades of providing professional electrical services to the Tallahassee area, Meeks Electrical Services can answer that question and will start by telling you it’s probably not as much as you might think. In fact, If you were trying to outdo the Griswold display with 250 strands of the highest-wattage incandescent Christmas light bulbs you can find, your home’s energy costs would jump by less than $20 per night. Let’s learn more about how much energy your Christmas lights might use.

Factors Affecting Christmas Light Energy Use

Several factors affect how much energy your Christmas lights might use, including the type of light bulb, the number of light bulbs or light strands, and nightly usage. For optimal energy savings, choose light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs, which use about 70-80% less energy than incandescent bulbs. Thus, if you were to Griswold your home with LED light strands rather than incandescent ones, your holiday lighting energy costs would likely add up to less than $3 per night.

To put this in greater perspective, a strand of 100 incandescent mini lights uses between 40 to 90 watts of energy depending on bulb size. A similar LED mini-light strand only uses between five to seven watts. Additionally, LED lights last far longer than incandescent lights, are available in a wide variety of styles and colors and burn brightly in Christmas color hues. Last, incandescent lights generate heat, which can pose a fire risk with indoor Christmas lighting, while LED lights generate little heat.

Energy-Saving Tips for Holiday Lighting

Based on our explanation of LED versus incandescent Christmas lights, you already know you can save significant energy costs by using LED bulbs and strands for all your Christmas lighting. Other ways to reduce the costs of Christmas lighting and amaze your neighbors with a dazzling 250-strand Christmas light display include:

• Choose Christmas lights displaying the “Energy Star” label.
• Use solar-powered outdoor lighting that allows the sun to power your display.
• Have a set time for turning off the Christmas lights and keep to it by putting the lighting on a timer.
• Use tinsel, metallic ornaments, and other reflective decorations to maximize brightness and glittering.
• Switch off more indoor lights when the Christmas lights are on.

Estimate the Energy Costs of Your Christmas Lights

If you’re interested in determining the energy costs of your Christmas lights this season—or any other electrical usage—you can use the following formula to make estimates:

1. Determine total wattage—count the wattage of each light strand and add them together.
2. Estimate nightly usage—multiply the above watts by the number of hours you plan to keep the lights on each night.
3. Convert to kilowatt hours—divide the total by 1,000.
4. Calculate the cost—multiply the total kWh figure by the kWh figure used by your electric utility (14 cents is the average kWh rate in the Tallahassee area). This figure will provide you with an estimated nightly cost, which you can then multiply by the number of days over the season you’ll be lighting your home to celebrate the season’s joy.

For All Your Electrical Service Needs in Tallahassee, Contact Meeks

Meeks Electrical Services wishes all our Tallahassee area customers happy holidays and the best for the new year. If you experience any electrical problems over the holiday season, you can contact Meeks Electrical Services at (850) 575-5241.