More from Dreaming of a Green Christmas: “Hot ecogifts this season include LED outdoor holiday lights that use 1/50th of the electricity and last 20 to 30 years. At $10 to $15 a string, they cost about five times as much as regular lights, but they save money in the long run, Mr. Comras says. ‘And they’re prettier.’”

We have a new place and had never had to buy outdoor lights before so we went for the more expensive NOMA brand LED lights. Prices for the LED lights were anywhere from about C$6 for a small 35 lights to about C$16 for a large 70 light sets (at Canadian Tire). Prices were different depending on colour, i.e., popularity. I would expect that all Christmas lights will be of the LED variety in the next few years.

According to the packaging, 600 LED lights will cost us about $0.45 in electrical costs* for 30 days of use. Very cheap!

This is compared to the following for the same period of time:

600 incandescent mini lights: $6.00 600 incandescent C6 lights: $13.35 600 incandescent C7 lights: $31.30

* Cost of electricity at 12 cents per kilowatt hour.

I think that the LED lights look better too! They do give a different kind of light compared to incandescent lights. Also, they operate “cold.” They are not hot or even warm to the touch. This would seem to be safer.

The box claims that they are virtually unbreakable. And, I would have to agree. They can be banged around without risk of breakage. I really like this.

So, even though they cost more initially, I think our new LED lights were a good investment. TIP: Buy your LED lights for next year after December 25th when they will almost definately be on sale…