How Much Electricity do Christmas Lights Use?

Beyond the aromas of sugar cookies and sightings of Jolly Old Saint Nick, nothing represents the magic of the holiday season more than the shining lights of Christmas. Illuminating chilly nights in shades of red, white, green and blue, Christmas lights spread holiday joy to young and old alike. Whether you’re a seasoned yuletide decorator or a first timer, you may have wondered how much your Christmas lights could add to your electricity bill. Read on to find out more, as well as a few tips on how you can save on your festive holiday lighting.

Types of Christmas Lights

You may not be able to tell from a distance, but there are different kinds of Christmas lights and the type you have can make a big difference on your electricity bill. Here are the most common kinds of lights you can buy today:

LED

LED, which stands for Light Emitting Diode, Christmas lights are the technological evolution of incandescent lights. Whereas incandescent lights use a filament within a glass bulb to make light, which may make them hot to the touch, LED lights emit light from diodes encased within durable plastic. As such, LED lights don’t get hot and are far more energy efficient. They also come in a wide range of shapes, sizes and colors, and the brightness of an LED light is not dependent on the size of the bulb like an incandescent light. LED lights tend to be more expensive, but the initial cost is offset by their durability as they often may last up to 25 times longer than incandescent lights.

Incandescent

If you have any hand-me-down Christmas lights, they may be incandescent lights. Known for their warm and vibrant glow, incandescent lights have been popular in the United States since the late 1920s. Incandescent lights produce rich colors and come in different bulb sizes, with the larger ones displaying brighter hues. Yet they also generate heat, which can be hazardous to people and potentially problematic for dry Christmas trees. Incandescent lights are less expensive than LED lights, but they use more electricity and don't last as long as LEDs.

Projection Lights

Relatively new, Christmas projection lights give you the chance to spruce up the outside of your home with holiday cheer without going through the effort of hanging lights from your shingles. These projectors come with an array of colors and patterns and installation is as easy as sticking the unit in the ground near a power plug. They often use LED light bulbs as well, making them energy efficient.

Solar-Powered Lights

Solar-powered Christmas lights are a great renewable energy option. These Christmas lights are composed of a string of LED bulbs attached to a miniature solar panel that absorbs sunlight during the day to power the lights at night. Some offer as many as 14 hours of lighting if they are fully charged, but your mileage will vary based on how much sunlight your panels receive. The LED bulbs minimize the amount of power used while operational, and since they are powered by solar panels you won’t have to worry about using extension cords. Most are also long enough so you can hang them from your shingles, as well.

Do Christmas Lights Use a Lot of Electricity?

Depending on the type of lights you have, how many you’re using and how long you run them for, your Christmas lights can use a substantial amount of electricity. The wattage of your lights determines how much electricity they need to run. Incandescent lights, which have been the main holiday lighting option for nearly a century, use far more electricity than the more recently developed LED lights. For example, this set of 100 small incandescent lights runs at about 40 watts. Translated into kilowatt-hour consumption with five hours of use over 30 days (150 hours), those incandescent lights will use six kWh of electricity.

Want to calculate your own Christmas light electricity use? Use this formula:

• Watts X Hours of Use ÷ 1,000 = kWh

This may not sound like much. After all, the average American home uses about 910 kWh per month. Your electricity use adds up as you run more lights, however. Use 500 lights to decorate the outside of your home and your additional consumption will jump to 30 kWh. That’s enough to power a small ENERGY STAR-Certified refrigerator for a month. Every holiday decorator is different, meaning that this number can change dramatically if you use larger incandescent lights. This set of 25 C7 incandescent bulbs runs at 125 watts. Just two of these strings of lights would use 37.5 kWh, assuming five hours of use over 30 days. Depending on the size of your home and the types of incandescent bulbs you use, your electricity use could be much higher.

All this changes dramatically if you use LED lights. This set of 100 LED Christmas lights runs at 7.2 watts. Using 500 of these lights for five hours per day for 30 days will consume 5.4 kWh. Christmas lights can use a lot of electricity. If you use LED lights and limit how many hours per day they are on, you can easily reduce your consumption and, in turn, how much extra you pay on your electricity bill.

What About Indoor Christmas Tree Lights?

Wrapping lights around your Christmas tree is one of the most joyful things you do during the holiday season. Just like decorating the outside of your home, you can choose from incandescent and LED lights for your tree. The number of lights you use will influence how much higher your electricity bill is. Lowe’s, for example, recommends using 100 lights for every one foot to one and a half-feet of tree. If you have a six-foot-tall tree, for example, you should aim for 400 to 600 lights. You may want to use more, in which case you will use more electricity.

How to Calculate the Cost of Running Your Christmas Lights

Budgeting is always a good idea, especially during the holiday season. Since we know how to calculate the electricity use per kWh your lights will use, it’s relatively easy to estimate how much running them will cost. To do so, use the following formula:

• Watts X Hours of Use ÷ 1,000 X Cost per kWh

Assuming 150 hours of use and a cost per kWh of $0.15, 500 of the small incandescent lights would cost $4.50 compared to $1.02 for the same number of LED lights. Since you will likely use more than 500 lights inside and outside your home, the numbers here may be higher. That said, if you’re a conservative decorator you may not notice a significant increase in your electricity bill even if you use incandescent bulbs. But if you want your home to be the kind that people will notice, you may pay significantly more.

How Can I Tell if My Christmas Lights are LED or Incandescent?

It’s not unusual to inherit Christmas lights from family members. If you’re unsure of whether your lights are LEDs or incandescent, there are a few simple ways to tell the difference. Incandescent lights emit substantial heat when they’re turned on, while LEDs do not. Additionally, incandescent lights have glass bulbs that house wire filaments whereas LED bulbs are plastic. Finally, incandescent bulbs emit light all around while LEDs are more directional.

Are LED Christmas Lights More Sustainable than Incandescent Lights?

LED Christmas lights are often thought to be better than incandescent lights because of their energy efficiency and longer shelf life. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LED lights use 75 percent less electricity than incandescent lights. This means fewer emissions are needed to produce electricity on a larger scale. Since LED bulbs are typically plastic, they are recyclable. You will likely need to check your local recycling rules as the cords may cause issues at your city’s recycling facility.

Tips for Reducing Electricity Use with Christmas Lights

If you love to decorate for the holidays, you will likely see an increase in your electricity bill. However, there are ways you can limit how much you use so that you won’t have to pay as much. This includes:

Unplug your lights when you aren’t using them. Even if they aren’t on, they can still use a small amount of electricity. You can use a timer or a power strip for this as well.

Turn off your lights before you go to sleep to limit your usage.

Use LED lights instead of incandescent lights when you can since they are far more efficient.

Solar-powered LED lights, which come with their own miniature solar panels, are a great way to illuminate your home without paying to use any electricity.

Consider using a Christmas light projector, which can illuminate your home for a fraction of the electricity use (and effort) of traditional lights.

Lighting your home for the holidays doesn’t have to be expensive. Although Christmas lights can use a lot of electricity, there are things that you can do to limit the extra expense as you enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.