LED Christmas lights

[Geraldo]

I tried searching at CPF, but the server was having some problems, so I'll ask here.

Has anyone tried out LED Christmas lights? From my research it seems that they weren't too great originally, but have improved (like all LED technology) and use quite a bit less electricity. Also, if anyone has used solar powered LED Xmas lights I'd be interested in hearing opinions on them as well.

 

[Matt Shade]

We have a 20ft+ tall spruce tree we put lights on every year. It grows fairly quick so every year we end up buying a couple more strings of lights to put on it. Last year we found some LED lights and decided to give them a try. They seem every bit as bright as the regular bulbs (we use the larger style, jumbos or whatever) and we didn't have any trouble with them not working. The regular lights generally have alot of bulbs go bad either from burning out or the wind knocking them together.
LEDS are probably the way to go, but I really don't know why anyone wants to think about christmas already!

 

[Bronco]

I suspect the biggest impediment to seeing a quality string of LED Christmas lights hit the market is the simple fact that they would likely be something that you could pass on to future generations - and that doesn't fit in very well with the long cherished manufacturing strategy of planned obsolescence.

 

[Guntotin_fool]

I have used them in my yard and last year we bought them for the lights we put around the office, and the new development we are working in. Out of somewhere over 160 strings of lights, I had one fail, previous years, we would replace about 30%. it paid off in one year.

 

[FireInvestigator]

I suspect the biggest impediment to seeing a quality string of LED Christmas lights hit the market is the simple fact that they would likely be something that you could pass on to future generations - and that doesn't fit in very well with the long cherished manufacturing strategy of planned obsolescence.

Agreed. My father taught that to me a looong time ago. Kinda sad really. Look at how cars in america were built for years, 100k miles and a car was 'done'.... I dont see that in things made 'custom or semi custom'. I feel a rant coming on so I better stop. Thanks for bringing that up.

 

[Bronco]

Agreed. My father taught that to me a looong time ago. Kinda sad really. Look at how cars in america were built for years, 100k miles and a car was 'done'.... I dont see that in things made 'custom or semi custom'. I feel a rant coming on so I better stop. Thanks for bringing that up.

Well, we can always keep our fingers crossed. If manufacturers feel there is truly a market to be exploited here, there could possibly be a short period of time during which quality of construction will be emphasized in the scramble to establish market share. Once this occurs, however, and the market pie gets divvied up, then all bets are off.

 

[tirod3]

I used battery operated ones indoors on a small tree my wife gave me - they work just fine, battery life was weeks of evening use before they ran out. They'll get rechargeables this year to cut down battery costs - 2 AAA's go into a lot of other stuff I operate, I'll just use them in the lights.

Outdoors they seem to be extremely durable, which is the point. Color tints are different, not traditional unless straight red, blue, etc, which seem to be harder to find. I fully expect the market to change over to LEDs, even in prewired Xmas trees, as they become even cheaper.

Initial costs are higher, like radial tires when they came out, but the lack of repeat purchasing is a big plus. I plan to stick with the deco scheme we use to integrate the transition - no sense jumping into a complete changeover, and it will reduce costs to just necessary replacement as it occurs. We're not going through those strings again swapping out 99 bulbs to find the one bad one anymore.

 

[Andrew Taylor]

In 2005 we purchased a set of LED lights to go around a window. My wife didn't like the blue-white colour. At Christmas 2006 Canadian Tire sold LED lights in three different coloured whites (how can they have different whites, a primary colour?). Anyway, the warm white fits in with what she likes and looks identical to the older lights. They cost a little bit more, but are cheaper to run, and they should last forever.

We are also converting to compact fluorescent light bulbs as well. They last 10 times longer, guaranteed for 5 years and cost a quarter of the electricity to run. Yes, they cost more to buy, but you still save money.

 

[joeshredd]

We are also converting to compact fluorescent light bulbs as well. They last 10 times longer, guaranteed for 5 years and cost a quarter of the electricity to run. Yes, they cost more to buy, but you still save money.

I use those at home, and we're thinking of converting to them in the office.

One caveat, however - it is illegal in many jurisdictions to throw them in the garbage - they contain mercury and must be recycled... which most people don't realize...