Holiday Light Display Savings
with LED Light Technologies
by Kurt Strange
H
oliday lights have made tremendous advances due to new technologies over the past 10 years. The introduction of LED lights
into holiday decor has catapulted the industry to achieve things
never imagined before. Many board members and property managers
are struggling to understand the value of LED lights and wonder if the
increased cost is worth the investment.
Have you ever touched an incandescent light bulb when it was turned
on? It was hot, right? Traditional incandescent bulbs produce light using
ancient technology that heats a filament, the tiny wire inside the bulb, to a
point where it glows. This glowing wire produces the light and gives off
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heat as a byproduct; the brighter the light, the greater the amount
of heat that is produced.
LEDs, short for Light Emitting Diodes, work using innovative
technology to produce light by moving electricity through semiconductor material. This new method eliminates the need for a
filament wire and the wasteful byproduct of heat. It also improves
the durability of the lights by replacing the glass used in incandescent lights with plastic. This not only makes LED lights nearly
indestructible, but also increases the lifespan of an LED light to
over 100,000 hours!
The heat byproduct of incandescent lights consumes 98 percent
of the electricity required to produce the lights. That means for
every $100 in electricity you pay each month, $98 is going to producing useless heat! Think about how much money a community
can save over several years by reducing their electric bill by 98
percent while eliminating frustrating and costly maintenance.
The savings and improved quality seem to be a no-brainer.
There is another benefit of LED lights not burning a filament
to produce its light but creating it by passing electrons through
a semi-conductor material instead. It allows LEDs to be extremely
efficient, saving communities thousands of dollars in electrical
costs each month and helping to transform associations to green
communities. Roughly 96 percent of the energy an LED light consumes will be transformed into light. When you apply this to the
cost of electricity, for every $100 spent on an incandescent light,
LEDs can achieve the same effect, but will only cost $2.09! That is
a substantial savings to a community.
Now, let’s apply this same cost savings analysis to a holiday
display for a community. Miami Christmas Lights, a holiday light
design and installation company specializing in HOAs, estimates
that the average association uses approximately 300, 100-bulb
strands of common miniature Christmas lights and 500 of the
traditional C7 bulbs for rooflines or community signs. This typical
installation requires 17.5 kW of energy to power each hour. When
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lit from sunset to sunrise for
60 days, this can cost a community almost $1,500! Many
communities initially dismiss
LED lights due to their increased cost, however, when
power savings and durability
are considered, they are often
the best option. For a display
that is going to work without
issues for the entire season and
save money on electricity,
LEDs are the only way to go.
LED lights are also more
durable and can eliminate the
many headaches associated
with holiday lights. Incandescent light bulbs are made with
glass to withstand the heat
that is produced by the light.
When the glass gets hot and
then comes in contact with
water, it can shatter due to the
quick change in temperature.
The shattered glass can separate the filament in the bulb,
causing the light to go out.
As we all know, when one
light goes out, the whole strand
goes out! This leads to the
frustrating process of checking each light until the culprit
is discovered, and it creates
dissatisfaction within the community when the display is
out. Because LED lights do not
produce heat, their bulbs are
manufactured with plastic,
which eliminates the possibility of them shattering and causing the entire strand to go out.
Although LED holiday
lights all work off of the same
principle, there are major
differences between lowand high-quality LED lights.
Cheap, low-quality holiday
LED lights that you buy at
Wal-Mart or Home Depot
will cause many of the same
problems traditional incandescent lights do. Yes, the
low-quality LED holiday
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light strands still use the
same basic technology and
are made of plastic, but they
are typically manufactured
like an incandescent light
strand and have removable
bulbs. This can cause the
same outage problem if one
bulb is removed or becomes
loose. High-quality, injectionmolded LED mini lights are
the preferred lights for professional holiday-decorating
companies. They are manufactured using injection mold
technology, which welds the
bulb to the socket, sealing it
from water and eliminating
the possibility of jiggling
loose. They do cost more, but
the increased reliability makes
it worth the extra expense.
LED holiday lights have
many advantages including
durability, energy efficiency,
and lower maintenance. New
technology has advanced LED
holiday lights to the point of
mainstream use, which has
reduced the cost substantially.
Although the initial price of
LED lights is more expensive, they provide savings
in energy consumption that
more than offsets the higher
cost. Additionally, their durability will eliminate many
of the common problems
involved with holiday lights
and can increase resident satisfaction during the holidays.
LED holiday lights are just
another example of how technology is helping to reduce
costs and improve our experience in holiday decorating.
Kurt Stange is President
of Miami Christmas Lights in
Miami Beach, FL. For more
information or questions regarding LED holiday lights, please
visit www.miamichristmas
lights.com. ■
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