Lighting your home in itself makes up about 25% of your annual energy bill. This percentage typically increases around the holiday season due to festive lighting. This doesn’t have to be the case, you can apply an energy efficient plan to enjoy and take part in the festive holiday lighting while keeping your energy usage at a minimum.

One of the simplest ways to reduce your energy lighting usage during the holidays is to turn off the lights of when not in use. This applies to holiday lights as well as your regular lamps and light fixtures.  You can place your lights on a timer, for those days when you’re in a rush to leave the house or you forget. The timer also comes in handy when you’re running late to get home, your home doesn’t miss a beat in the holiday light display.  In addition to turning off holiday lights during the daytime when they’re not in use, if possible, unplug them from outlets to keep them from drawing power from the outlets even though they’re not in use.

Secondly, thanks to amazing advances in technology, LED bulbs are available for holiday lights now. If you haven’t already switched all the bulbs in your home to LED, you should get on that. When purchasing holiday lights this year, alt for the ones with LED bulbs. LED doesn’t have to be dull lighting. When purchasing LED, check the lumens, you can invest in bulbs that don’t use as much energy as incandescent bulbs but are just as bright if not brighter. LED bulbs use about 70% less energy than traditional bulbs. In addition to being more efficient in saving you energy, LED holiday lights can be connected together in multiple strings without the risk of overloading your circuit. Look for the lights with an Energy Star qualified marker on the box or packaging. Another option to save money on your energy bill is to use battery powered lights! They don’t impact your energy bill, all you need to invest is a handful of AAA or AA batteries.

Now you have a plan to efficiently light your home for the holidays. Enjoy the light and the savings, and have a happy and efficient holiday season.