Light your Christmas tree with LED light bulbs

There’s nothing quite like a Christmas tree and lights to create that festive feeling. In almost every corner of the world you’ll see homes twinkling and shopping centres sparkling and shimmering with light.

In the past, having a stunning Christmas display meant having a budget to match, but not any more … not with LED lighting.

In New York, the Rockefeller Center has been using LED lights since 2008. The truly ‘green’ Christmas tree and its 30,000 energy efficient LED lights are powered by solar panels located on the roof of the Rockefeller Plaza.

But it’s not just large shopping centres that go over the top with Christmas lighting. In a Christmas lighting survey conducted by GoCompare last year, 52% of householders said they intended decorating the outside their homes with Christmas lights. GoCompare’s estimates, on average, a house decorated with outside Christmas lights will use an extra 22.8 days worth of electricity each year.

An electrician in Melksham, Wiltshire decks his home with lights each Christmas and last year raised £2,000 in charity donations from visitors admiring his display. The cost of running the lights in 2010 was £700, and with an even larger display than ever this year, he expects his bill to be even higher.

So the message is clear, if you want to go over the top with your Christmas lighting, switching to LED light bulbs makes a lot of sense. Although you’ll pay more for a set of LED fairy lights, they will last considerably longer than the old fashioned type of lights and the long terms savings will be substantial. As well as the cost benefits, LED fairy lights are more reliable and safer than the old incandescent ones.

Do remember to take your old fairy lights to your local recycling centre when you replace them with LED light bulbs. As electrical goods, they are required to be recycled under the WEEE regulations.