Holiday lights go green

Many are switching to energy-efficient LED bulbs for Christmas displays

Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Mario Jiminez of Bethesda-based M&C Landscaping Inc., decorates homes for the holidays. His company contracts with Christmas Décor, a nationwide company that is pushing for more energy efficient LED lights in holiday decorations. Featured Jobs See all jobs

‘‘It’s about even,” said John Wood, manager of Hardware City in Kensington. ‘‘They’re moving about the same. ... I would say people prefer the LEDs because they’ve got a better burn to them.”

LED lights have a brighter color and last longer than traditional holiday lights made of glass and incandescent bulbs. A small amount of electricity turns on the diode, housed in a variety of bulbs that resemble incandescent bulbs, but require less energy to brighten a tree or roof.

Residents from the Town of Chevy Chase to Garrett Park said they enjoy the ‘‘green” lights not for their color, but because they use less energy and are cooler to the touch than traditional bulbs.

Manufacturers claim LED lights need only 10 percent of the power needed for incandescent lights.

Town of Chevy Chase resident Judith McGuire said she noticed a mix of LED lights and traditional bulbs on houses in her neighborhood.

‘‘I’ve seen the bluish [LEDs] up, but I haven’t seen any of the colored lights yet,” McGuire said, who chairs the town’s climate protection committee.

Garrett Park residents are planning to light a town tree next holiday season with LED lights.

‘‘We’re still working out the details,” said Matt Stavish, president of the Garrett Park Citizens Association. A patent lawyer, he worked with companies putting a stamp on the LED Christmas-light technology. Streetlights in town could be used to power the 500 strands Stavish owns.

‘‘We’re going to work with Pepco to beef up [the system] for next year,” he said. ‘‘Garrett Park is green, and tries to be, and the energy saving and safety is something really interesting.”

The LED lights have become significantly more popular in the past two years, according to Beth Margulies, spokeswoman for the Bethesda-based National Electrical Contractors Association, a group representing lighting, power and communication contractors and businesses across the United States.

She said the LED lights made their first appearance in large retail stores like Wal-Mart and Target last year.

‘‘LED lights have become much more popular, and much more widely available, which is important,” she said. ‘‘What people like is that the bulb itself does not grow warm. So if there are children in the house, it is a safety precaution.”

She said standards are in place to make sure all decorative lights are safe for indoor and outdoor use, but the cool-burning bulb and low electric use are attractive ways to balance the initial cost of buying the LED strands.

On average, a strand of LED lights cost $6 to $9, while incandescent lights cost around $3.

‘‘It’s like buying the compact florescent bulbs,” said Mario Jiminez of M&C Landscapes, Inc., of Bethesda. ‘‘They’ll save you money in the long run, but are more expensive up front.”

The business installs residential and commercial holiday light decorations during the winter season. They contract with Christmas Décor, a national holiday decoration supplier, which places an emphasis on LED strands, according to company press releases.

Tons of LED strings can be hung together with few problems, Jiminez said. Traditional incandescent strands can only be chained together so many times before homeowners run the risk of fuses blowing and power outages.

‘‘The LEDS are nicer, glow softer and are a little more eye-catching, which I like, personally, but clients look at costs,” Jiminez said. ‘‘With the incandescents, you have to keep track of the amperage, but with the LEDs you don’t have to worry about that. You can run them all day long.”

Cost is the biggest deterrent for homeowners to adorn their homes in energy-saving bulbs.

Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Temple and Visitors’ Center in Kensington said they were attracted to the energy-efficient lights two years ago.

The center has an annual Festival of Lights holiday light display that uses 450,000 bulbs. Groundskeeper Larry Smith said 350,000 of them are LED lights and that the center plans to convert them all to the cost-saving strands within two years.

‘‘There’s several pluses and not a minus at all,” Smith said. ‘‘The initial expense is high, but the very fact that they last so long and there’s a warranty of 300,000 hours ... as long as the wiring stays intact, they should last you a long, long, long time.”

Church officials did not want to report the cost of the light show, according to spokesman Wes Anderson. He said the church expects to track the power used this year and compare the bill to previous light shows and note the cost difference by next year.

Smith, who has used LEDs on his Pasadena home for three years said they are easier to use – even if homeowners don’t use 350,000 of them.

‘‘We do it fairly artistically. ... Instead of lining shrubs, we wrap the limbs of trees and such,” he said. ‘‘The regular bulbs break, and then if one goes out they all go out, and it’s a nightmare to put them up.”

LEDs in action

Energy-saving LED lights make up 70 percent of the annual Festival of Lights holiday display at the Washington, D.C. Temple and Visitors’ Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The holiday display begins 6 p.m. Friday at 9900 Stoneybrook Drive, Kensington, with outdoor light displays and 17 decorated trees inside the visitor’s center. For more information, call the visitors’ center at 301-587-0144.