LED Christmas lights saved $$$!

[herdtoDisney]

I'm thrilled-we just got our electric bill for December and we used WAY less electricity than last year at the same time!

Last Christmas was our first one in our home (we had bought it that year). We like to put up lights but just hung up the old ones we had had forever (we had been in an apt for a couple years previously). I went out after the holidays and got some LED lights on clearance, and then got some at Lowes in Nov when they had their sale (which I found out about from this board ). So all our lights (except one deer structure lighted thing) were LED's this time.

Since we've always done lights, December has always been our highest elec bill month. Our bill graphs out useage for a year at a time, so you can compare. This Dec was so much lower than lasts! Actually, it was barely higher than November (when we didn't have lights up). Those LED lights really did save on the bill, I'm very impressed!!! DH wasn't overly excited about the change, but now he's sold on them! We even got some at Walmart yesterday to re-string the deer thing for next Christmas.

 

[sharonmickey]

Glad to hear you saved money. I put up a string of LED lights this year too but have not received my bill yet. Hope I saved money also. I loved the LED lights, in fact the kids said they could see the ornaments on the tree better with the LED lights than with the old lights.

 

[TiggerStac]

I haven't received my bill yet, but it has generated online. my dec bill was a little bit more than novemeber,$22 less than dec of last year, & I am now a sahm so we are using more electricity during the day. my bills have been about $25/more month.

we used led's on the outside of the house, regular on the tree.

 

[eliza61]

good to hear, we've been toying with the idea of buying led lights. I just can't get past the initial sticker shock since regular lights are so cheap.

 

[dawson5]

good to hear, we've been toying with the idea of buying led lights. I just can't get past the initial sticker shock since regular lights are so cheap.

even with the coupon at HD, we still spent $$ to replace our old ones. I think they ended up being $5/box with a coupon for $3 ($8-$3/coupon=$5/box).

I am a little peeved though, we strung them up and some are bright and others are dim. We've only had them up since the first week of Dec. *All bought at the same time, same brand, from the same store.

 

[Muushka]

We went LED a few years ago. I think the thing I like best about ours is that we got the old fashioned looking type, C9, multicolored. They stay cool and we love the look. We also added some C6 to fill in.

I am not a fan of the bright white LEDs. Way too harsh on the eyes.

 

[ilovepete]

That is great!

 

[WeLuvDCL]

I am not a fan of the bright white LEDs. Way too harsh on the eyes.

Same here. Those are called cool white.
We only buy the warm white LED. They look more like regular white lights. They are harder to find, Walgreens and Home Depot had some this year.

 

[Colleen27]

good to hear, we've been toying with the idea of buying led lights. I just can't get past the initial sticker shock since regular lights are so cheap.

Watch sales when the decorations start popping up this year. I got ours for $15/strand (200 light reels of the old fashioned C9/big bulb style) on sale, and then an extra $4 off that price for trading in an old strand of lights into the store's recycling program. $11 is still more than a comparable strand of standard lights, but it is a lot easier to swallow than the $30 retail price on those reels! And two of those strands was plenty of lights for our ridiculously large (had to trim it to get it to fit our 10' ceiling) tree.

 

[Muushka]

200 C9 for $11? Please tell me where you got a deal like that!

 

[Colleen27]

200 C9 for $11? Please tell me where you got a deal like that!

A locally owned hardware store's Black Friday sale, $15 (50% off regular price) and a $4 trade-in credit. K-Mart had a similar offer this year too, I don't remember if they were c6 or c9 size bulbs but they were that same shape.

 

[snowywhite89]

We have been switching over to LEDs for a few years now. Each year we saw a drop in our electric bill. I love a tree with lots of lights and we use lots outside.

The thing I love most about LEDs is that you can string an entire tree end to end. So much easier.

 

[csharpwv]

We bought replacement C9 LED bulbs for $3.75 a box (25 per box) to update out current C9 lights.

We live on a really busy 2 lane road - and we have a slpit rail fence in front of the house that we use those light on becuase they big bright and very traditional.

The reason why we didn't buy new strands is becuase the ones we have are 'twinkle' strands where every few bulbs, one light blinks on and off - and the way we wrap our fence it adds just enough animation/movement to our light display to be interesting - but now overbearing. We bought red and white replacement bulbs - where the current strands are just a frosted clear. So we bought enough to keep them all white - or do all red - or alternate red and white. who knows what we'll do - but with the full boxes of replacement bulbs that cheap - we bought enough to cahnge things up!

We almost went with overbearing - the LED lightshow sets were REALLY cheap last week at K-Mart and Sears (Originally $100 sets were $25) but in the end - we decided not to be 'those' people!

Oh well - sometimes it's good to be those people - but not this time - at least not us.... this time!

but we also bought C9 led's to line out sidewalk. Those were multi-color.

 

[Muushka]

A locally owned hardware store's Black Friday sale, $15 (50% off regular price) and a $4 trade-in credit. K-Mart had a similar offer this year too, I don't remember if they were c6 or c9 size bulbs but they were that same shape.

I did a few stores today, none left never mind bargains! Next year....but thank you

 

[sharonmickey]

I purchased my LED lights at Kmart on Thanksgiving. There were 200 LED lights (multi-colored) on a reel for 1/2 price. I paid $14.99. I liked the lights so much that I went out the day after Christmas to buy more but Kmart was sold out. I'm hoping that they go on sale again this year so that I can buy more.