Save Money With Energy Efficient Holiday Lights

One of the best things about the end of the year is driving around and looking at attractive holiday lights displays. While they are certainly pretty and festive, their added cost to operate might make you feel like Scrooge when you look at your next electricity bill!

Luckily, there are many ways to keep your holiday lights up without having to spend too much money on electricity!

Buy LED Lights

These lights are excellent because they are cool to the touch, energy efficient, and they last for a long time. You can see some serious savings! For example, when measuring the cost of lighting a six-foot tree for 12 hours a day for 40 days, incandescent C-9 holiday lights cost roughly $10 to run, while the LED equivalent only costs $0.27!

LEDs are able to achieve such energy efficiency because of their clever design. Incandescent light bulbs only use 10 percent of their electricity to light an ordinary light bulb, with the rest wasted as heat.

Go for the mini lights

Instead of going for the big and bulky bulb lights, choose strings of mini-lights for your outdoor decorating. You can significantly reduce the cost of running your holiday lights in this way, reducing your cost per string from ~9 cents per hour to less than one!

Take advantage of mail-in rebates

To reduce the overall cost of purchasing new holiday lights, check to see if there is a mail-in rebate from the manufacturing company. Missing out on a mail-in rebate is essentially missing out on free money, so be sure to stay vigilant!

Set timers to limit usage

Timers are a great way to efficiently manage your light usage. For example, you may only want your lights to be on from 4PM to 10PM instead of turning them on when you get home from work and having them on until you wake up in the morning. What’s more, having your lights set up to timers will allow your home to keep its festive look even if you are out visiting relatives!

Get creative

There are plenty of 100% electricity-free options that you can use to spruce up your home around the holidays. Think silver bells, garland, wreaths, and ribbons—many of these beautiful, festive decorations are also very shiny and reflect light well.

Still need to purchase a few Christmas lights or displays? Make that purchase through our Star Energy Rewards app and you’ll receive cashback on every purchase!