Tired of looking for that one bulb that burnt out? Are strings of holiday lights running up your energy bill? Do your Christmas tree lights run way too hot? If so, you need to look into LED lighting.
Since their inception, lights have been a staple in the holiday decorating process. A reindeer here, a wreath there, but no decorated home is complete without some strings of lights around the house as well as the tree. Only until recent years has LED technology become present in Christmas lights, but in these tough times they couldn’t have come soon enough.
LED Lighting Advantages
Many tests have been run to contrast the standard incandescent to the newly sought after LED technology. After comparison, tests showed that there are amazing advantages to using LED lights, but like anything else does not rule out some drawbacks.
Power Consumption
Consumer Reports writes that after testing LED against incandescent lights, LED tremendously outperformed the latter. The test showed that LED used up to 33% less power than their outdated brethren. They go on to say that they can save you ten dollars every 300 hours. It looks like LED has the power!
Sustainability
Now that we know that you can save some bucks from using LEDs, you probably want to know what your investment can get you. Well it turns out that LEDs can burn up to 4000 hours without quitting! Incandescents were reported to burn out in half that time. According to Wisegeek.com, LED lights are “Used often in the dashboards of jet planes – so burn out after one season is highly unlikely.” Things are looking bright for LEDs – maybe not that bright.
Brightness
With any relationship there is some give and take and this one is no different. While the LEDs may have won in the bang-for-your-buck category, they fail to out-glow the incandescents. Consumer Reports says that while LEDs may run cooler, it is because of this that they are dimmer. Productdose.com also says that while the dimness of LEDs is not very significant in the comparison of incandescants, the drawback of the lower power is a more focused light rather than a halo-like glow.
Replacement
You’ll be glad to know that if by some chance one of your new LED lights does burn out, it is a piece of cake to getting them all glowing again. Unlike incandescent lights, individual LEDs do not contain a filament that will shut off all the other lights on the string. According to Wisegeek.com, they instead use light emitting diodes that run off the movement of electrons inside the bulbs.
After close review of the two competitors, there is no doubt that LED has come out on top. In four basic grades of value, LEDs take home three. It appears, without pun intended, that incandescents cannot hold a candle to the awesomeness of LED lighting for your every holiday needs.
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