December 31, 2008 11:00 ET

Sale Shopping for 2009 Holiday Lights? Consider Energy-Efficient LEDs

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - December 31, 2008) - For anyone and everyone who's shopping the post-holiday sales in order to stock up on holiday lights for 2009, a word to the wise: make sure the lights you purchase are of the light-emitting diode (LED) variety, rather than incandescent bulbs. LEDs will cost more up front, but the savings are major over the long haul.

"A 60-light LED string will put out as much light as a 100-light incandescent string, and will result in an 88 percent savings on your electric bill," said Con Edison Lighting Specialist Peter Jacobson. "That's almost 9/10 of what you're spending on energy for holiday lights. That'll keep more green in your wallet, and you'll be happier every holiday season for the rest of your life because of it."

Considering that the holiday lighting season is 45 days long, and that lights are typically on for seven hours a night, the seasonal savings will amount to 11-plus kilowatt hours for each string of lights, or the difference between $3.05 per incandescent string to 37 cents for an LED string. That amounts to $2.25 savings for each LED string. (A string of incandescents will use 13.858 kilowatt hours (kWh) over a lighting season, while LEDs will use only 1.69 kWh.)

"Multiply that by the number of strings that you're displaying," noted Jacobson, "and it adds up."

While an incandescent string of lights uses 41 watts, an LED string uses only five watts, according to Jacobson.

"The 60 LED lights will be just as bright as the 100 incandescents, and you'll never have to replace the LED lights again," Jacobson added. "The LEDs last 20,000 hours, and the typical lighting season is 315 hours. So unless you expect to be in charge of putting up the lights 60 years from now, you won't need to replace the LEDs. You're done. You're saving the environment and cutting energy costs at the same time."

Incandescent lights run $3 to $5 for a string, while LED lights are typically about $12 for a branded product and $6 for a non-branded product. The payback period, Jacobson estimates, is four and a half years.

LED holiday-light usage constitutes only one of the ways customers can trim bills and contribute to energy savings that aid the environment. An array of energy-savings tips are available as part of Con Edison's EnergyNY program, the company's recently announced plan to meet the future energy needs of its customers. Details of the company's energy efficiency programs, as well as plans for infrastructure upgrades to meet growing demand, can be viewed at http://www.conEd.com/energyny.

Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE: ED), one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $29 billion in assets. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York. For additional financial, operations and customer service information, visit Con Edison's Web site at www.coned.com.