PHILADELPHIA LED Christmas lights save money, report says
The government says LED lights will someday be used to light homes and offices.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Consumers can save money on their electricity bills by switching from traditional Christmas lights to LED lights, the government said, giving a boost to a suburban Philadelphia company that holds a patent on the technology.
The Department of Energy report confirmed what Fiber Optic Designs has been saying for the last several years: LED lights last much longer, cost a lot less to operate and are much more durable than conventional Christmas light sets that frequently malfunction.
"LED technology is well-suited to this application and may gradually replace conventional incandescent lights over time, saving significant energy and money," the report said.
While still a tiny fraction of total Christmas light sales, LED lights are becoming more popular. Some retailers have already sold out this year, and utilities are touting the benefits of LED Christmas lighting to their customers.
LED lights have been used on state Christmas trees in Oregon, Washington, D.C., and Montana, while the Long Island Power Authority in New York plans to send a holiday flyer to nearly 1.1 million customers praising LED lights as the "greatest invention in lighting since Edison invented the light bulb!"
Power saver
In its report, the Energy Department said that if all conventional incandescent Christmas lights in the United States were replaced with LED lights, annual energy savings would total 2 billion kilowatt-hours -- enough to power almost 200,000 homes for an entire year.
Mike McCabe, of the Energy Department's Building Technologies Program, said that he expects LED technology to improve to the point where it can be used to light homes and offices all year round.
"With directed research to deal with some of the challenges, we fully expect we can develop white-light technologies that can have significant impact on the nation's energy use," he said.
LED, or light-emitting diode, technology has been around for decades, and LEDs are steadily replacing light bulbs in a variety of devices, including traffic lights, brake lights, automobile instrument panels and emergency exit signs.
Breakthrough
Although LED Christmas lights have been available for several years, their popularity was limited because they required batteries or transformers and couldn't be strung together or used outdoors.
Fiber Optic Designs changed that two years ago by introducing sets that run on standard A/C current and can be strung together and used indoors or out.
Vice President Jim Bruno said Fiber Optic Designs posted a 400 percent gain in sales this year. "The demand so far exceeds the supply, it's incredible," he said.
In July, the company announced a worldwide licensing agreement with Holiday Creations Inc. of Littleton, Colo., to speed production.
"They had the ability, from our perspective, to leapfrog five years of growth. It enables us to do what we do best, which is to play around with the patent," Bruno said.