Then there was light!

I bought Christmas lights on Saturday. They are the new LED lights that save energy and last up to 200,000 hours. They are lovely and shimmery and they are called "Icy white." They look a little bit blue against the snow. They are perfect, I love them! I'm really getting into the spirit of the season. Maybe it's all the snow.

I read all of the instructions, filed the guarantee and put the boxes away in safe spot so that I can properly repackage the lights when the holidays are over. The Energy Savings Comparison Chart tells me that I have made a wise choice.

To light 600 LED lights for 30 days (at 6 hours per day) I will only spend a measly 45 cents. Compare this to a string of 600 incandescent mini lights which cost $6.00 for the same period. Compared again to 600 C6 incandescent lights for $13.35 or C7 incandescent lights for $31.30. I know for a fact that I own a string of mini incandescent lights but I have no idea what a C6 or C7 is so maybe I do, or maybe I don't have 'em.

I bought the string of mini incandescent lights for $.99 at a Boxing Day Sale. My new LED lights cost $19.99 each. I bought 4 sets. Throw in tax and I'm in to these lights for $90.20 though that includes a gallon of windshield washer fluid. Let's round down to $87.98. Hmmmm. Four dollars and change versus $87.98. Guess I have to capitalize on the good-will feeling I get from buying a "green" product.

The box on my new LED lights says that they are virtually unbreakable and that the bulbs last up to 200,000 hours. Let's hope this is more accurate that the long-lasting CFL bulbs. I saw a segment on the news last week where our Environment Minister held a press meeting at the local Home Depot. He made a big show out of depositing a CFL bulb into a special recycling bin. You can't just send these bulbs out to the landfill. It suddenly struck me that these things are supposed to last 20 years -- way longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. How is it then that we are now already educating the public about recycling 20-year lightbulbs that have only celebrated their...what?...third, fourth, fifth birthday? Hey Environment Minister, while you were at Home Depot, you should have dropped a battery into the recycle bin. People are throwing them out with household waste and have been for years and years!

I think that there is probably a sharp-minded fifth grader out there that can tell me how long I need to use each set of lights my bulbs until the cost to operate them PLUS the cost to purchase them equals out.

Hey kids, whaddya say, feel like earning some extra credit?