Christmas Goes Green...With LED Lights

Written by Meredith on November 25, 2007 | Comments (0)

We're trying to go green in our Brentwood home this Christmas:

a real tree
wreaths handmade from leftover trimmings
no outdoor lights or inflatable decorations

...and of course, our first set of LED Christmas lights.

After all, LED lights last longer, use less energy, and burn cooler than traditional Christmas lights. I wanted to see how bright LED Christmas lights look in person, so we spent some time this weekend checking Brentwood area stores for availability and prices.

Here's what I found:

The generic LED Christmas lights are NOT MUCH cheaper than the brand names.

A 50-light strand seems to cost $10 at most stores, even the no-name brand sold at Big Lots.

I was almost relieved, as I prefer to buy a reputable brand like GE when it comes to new technology.

There also seems to be a price difference based on colored vs. white lights. At Lowe's, a $10 strand of GE LED Christmas lights includes 25 bulbs. The same $10 gets you twice as many colored bulbs in a strand.

Why are white LED lights more expensive than colored?

At first I thought that the stores are taking advantage of white's overwhelming popularity, but my online research turned up the real reason. White light is composed of several different colors, and white LED lights must use several different color semiconductors. That's why they cost more than single-color (single-semiconductor) bulbs.

I saw LED Christmas lights in three general styles:

Tiny Pinpoint Lights:

These seem to be the most concentrated, and thereby, intense.

Old-Fashioned Lightbulbs:

These large colored or crystal-textured covers diffuse and magnify the same amount of light.
They look a lot bigger than the tiny white LED bulbs.

Novelty Shapes:
These unusual plastic covers come in red globes, star or snowflake-shaped casings.

LED lights are a long-term investment, so these styles may lock you into one decorating theme.

Which Brentwood store has the best deals on LED Christmas lights?

Walmart has Sylvania 60-bulb strands of colored LED lights for $10.
Lowe's has 50-bulb strands of colored LED lights for $10.
Big Lots has 50-bulb strands of white LED lights for $10.

For some reason, most retailers are not offering LED lights on their online storefronts. Unless I find a great Cyber-Monday deal, we're going to go with the colored LED lights from Walmart.

UPDATED: My procrastination paid off! Home Depot offers the best price on LED Christmas lights that I've seen anywhere. You can buy both colored and white 50-light strands for $6.99 while supplies last.

Even the Opryland Hotel, with its thousands and thousands of Christmas lights, has gone green with LED lights!