Are you starting to plan your outdoor holiday decorations? Have you thought about the advantages of using solar powered Christmas lights? There are some great reasons to switch from traditional incandescent holiday lights to Christmas lights that are powered by the sun. Are they right for you?

Do you know how much energy traditional incandescent Christmas lights use? Many of the larger lights like C-7 lights use about five watts per bulb. A string of a hundred Christmas lights can run 500 watts per hour. If you have your decorations on for six hours per day for a month then that one strand of lights may use 90 kilowatts. At 10 cents per watt, that one strand alone will cost you $9.00 to run for the entire season.

Solar powered Christmas lights are more efficient than traditional lights. They use light emitting diodes or LEDs. These lights use only a small percent of the electricity that traditional incandescent Christmas lights use. Because of this low power usage, a strand of LEDs can easily be powered by a small solar panel with rechargeable batteries. If you get a fair amount of sunlight, these should do well for you. Last year we experienced several days that were completely overcast, and yet there was enough light that the lights were on for several hours those evenings.

Solar powered Christmas lights are great for the environment as well. Each kilowatt hour of electricity produced by fossil fuels will generate up to 2.3 pounds of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas” that creates a layer of insulation in the atmosphere. This means that light from the sun initially passes through the atmosphere easily.

However, the resulting heat from that would usually radiate back into space gets trapped, warming the planet. That’s what scientists refer to as global warming. By reducing greenhouse or carbon emissions we can help reduce global warming. By using solar powered Christmas lights, electricity is not being used that has to be generated by fossil fuels. By replacing the one strand of traditional incandescent Christmas lights with solar powered ones, you are reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions by 207 pounds for the Christmas season.

Solar powered Christmas lights are also safer than traditional lights. You will not need long extension chord runs. That means you’ve reduced your tripping hazard. Traditional lights use household voltage with is about 120 volts. If the chord is frayed or cut and you touch it while it is plugged in, you could suffer severe shock or electrocution. This is also important if you have outside pets like dogs that chew on things. Pets have been hurt and in some instances killed by chewing on electric chords or wiring. That won’t happen with solar powered lights. The voltage is very low as is the wattage so there is no chance of real harm or damage.

If you don’t have access to an electric outlet in the location you want to decorate, solar powered Christmas lights are ideal. That’s why I started using them. I wanted to put some decorations near the road in front of the house. I didn’t have access to electricity since it was over a hundred and fifty yards from the house. By using solar powered lights, I was able to decorate where it would have been impossible otherwise.

Finally, these solar powered Christmas lights come in a variety of forms and types. There are lawn stake lights to decorate areas of your lawn. There are path lights to be used along your sidewalk or driveway. There are tea lights. String or fairy lights are available to wrap around poles, fences, trees, and mailboxes. Net lights can be used to decorate shrubs or bushes. Some lights come in the form of icicles or snow flakes. You can get white lights, blue lights or multi-colored ones. You can get spotlights to illuminate and highlight decorations like lawn cutouts or nativity scenes.

Solar powered Christmas lights won’t increase your electric bill. They are better for the environment. These Eco-friendly lights are better for the environment and you can use them anywhere there is decent exposure to the sun. Finally, you can get a variety of types to meet your decorating needs. So are they right for you?

John Lunt is an enthusiastic advocate of living simply and that includes the use of renewable sources of energy. Last year he began using Christmas solar decorations for the first time and believes this is the future of outdoor holiday decorations. You can find out more at his website http://www.squidoo.com/christmas-solar-lights

John Lunt blogs at http://johnlunt.wordpress.com

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Ok so you might find the next few links interesting. These are from around the web, just random snippets that I’ve picked up in my reading, but I found some very cool information in them. You might too. Here goes…

Road closure for lights switch-on

For more details of the switch-on event and other Christmas events in the Dereham and Fakenham area see the special Christmas Lights supplement in this … Read More…

I declare this county ‘open for business’

A CHEERING crowd saw Prince Charles make royal history last night as he switched on their town’s Christmas lights and declared: “Keswick and … Read More…

Lighting the way

The motorcycle unit kept stride with the lighted-parade theme, having Christmas lights strung on their motorcycles. Joining the riders was a Marine in full … Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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