Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 12/2/2008, 6:50 AM
I am glad my neighborhood does not have lighting contests.
We hardly put up any lights but donate the money in electricity savings
to charity.

I think that is truly celebrating the holiday.

(We do, as a family, drive around looking at other displays)
RalphM wrote on 12/2/2008, 6:57 AM
As a light show, very interesting. Having anything to do with Christmas, very doubtful.

Sorry, AlanC, only one cup of coffee so far this AM.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/2/2008, 7:34 AM
We hardly put up any lights but donate the money in electricity savings

how do you figure out the savings?
Chienworks wrote on 12/2/2008, 7:52 AM
By overestimating, of course! ;)
richard-courtney wrote on 12/2/2008, 7:53 AM
This was in our electric bill:

http://www.christmaslightsanddecorations.com/energy-cost-calculator.aspx

we simply write a check for that amount and put in the red kettles ($25 we estimated)
TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/2/2008, 8:42 AM
you can't change the kw/h amount. :? Anyway... that means if I didn't do any of my normal lights (ones on tree) I'd say $1.11 a month. :D Yes, we only ever put two stings on our tree, last year it was simple because we didn't have a tree. :'(

however... I could spend $20 to replace my normal lights with LCD ones (that cost ~$4, 2 a strand of 100). So it would take me 14 YEARS to save $$ on them, assuming they don't need to be replaced. Eek!
rs170a wrote on 12/2/2008, 8:51 AM
So it would take me 14 YEARS to save $$ on them...

If you're as clumsy as I am, that payback period will be much quicker beacuse you'll save on the (daily) cost of replacement bulbs.
LEDs are darn near indestructible :-)

Mike
Coursedesign wrote on 12/2/2008, 9:48 AM
(We do, as a family, drive around looking at other displays)

Well, MY family donates the money we save by not driving around looking at other people's displays!

:O)

TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/2/2008, 9:53 AM
If you're as clumsy as I am, that payback period will be much quicker beacuse you'll save on the (daily) cost of replacement bulbs.

I don't think I've replaced a bulb yet in 5 or 6 years. :D I'm not sure how well the LED lights hold up though. They could be relatively fragile in the whole strand construction & the wires could break or the lights be ripped out. Haven't checked them out though.
Chienworks wrote on 12/2/2008, 12:03 PM
I've got a set of LED lights that i wrapped around the stair railing 2 Christmasses ago. I liked them so much, and that hallway was always so dark, that i decided to leave them there permanently. They've been on just about 24x7 for 2 years now. The cats rub against them and chew them. So far 1 of the 40 LEDs has gone out. The rest are still going strong.
baysidebas wrote on 12/2/2008, 12:24 PM
Question arises: just how many of the cats are still going?
Chienworks wrote on 12/2/2008, 1:08 PM
At last count, all of them. :)
ushere wrote on 12/2/2008, 2:44 PM
oi vey! humbug.