4 Dazzling Home Holiday Light Shows: They Cost HOW Much?!

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Published: December 29, 2010
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HouseLogic calculates the electricity costs of four very ambitious home Christmas light displays—using conventional lights and then electricity-saving LEDs.

For many home owners, decorating for the holidays is a chance to share holiday joy with their neighbors, friends, and anyone else who drives by—or flies over in an airplane. But it also can be quite a costly undertaking. Safety concerns notwithstanding, holiday lights are notorious power leeches that take a toll on your electric bill.

To demonstrate, HouseLogic used the average price per kWh in each home’s region to roughly calculate the dollar damage sustained by some of the more extravagant Christmas light displays (assuming each bulb was the average 5 watt C7 bulb). And just for fun, we did rough estimates of energy bill savings if all the lights were LEDs. While LEDs are more expensive than traditional bulbs to purchase, they use up to 90% less energy and last a lot longer.

Noel, times a million

In Delaware, 1,000,000 twinkling lights signal the start of the holiday season. You read that right—one million! The Faucher family has been slowing traffic to a crawl with their home Christmas display for about 25 years with this ambitious and breathtaking endeavor.

Estimated cost: $686/hour; keeping them lit for 4 hours a night over 30 days (about a month) adds up to $82,320.

Estimated cost using only LEDs: $89/hour; $10,680/month

Possible electric bill savings: $597/hour; $71,640/month.

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copied from someone else with knowledge of electricity that far surpasses mine. I call shenanigans. Let's just assume they are all typical mini-lights. A 100 bulbs string is 37 watts, so... 1,000,000 / 100 = 10,000 10,000 x 37 = 370,000 or 370 kW 370 x .14 = $51.80/ hr $51.80 x 4 = $207.20 / night $207.20 x 30 = $6216.00 Still a ridiculous amount of money IMHO but no where near $82,0000.
Posted by Jonathan on December 12, 2010

5W x 1,000,000 = 5 megawatt!!! Total rubbish Even at 0.5W that is 500kW(0.5megawatt) which is still way too high for a house
Posted by FAILlogic on December 12, 2010

It seems more that the Faucher's use the 0.5 watt mini bulbs over the C7. Still expensive but about a 10th of your estimate.
Posted by Dain on December 12, 2010

They’re lush, green, and all-American. They’re also water-hogging, time-sucking nuisances. In fact, some are saying ‘no’ to turf. Should we get rid of our lawns?

What are lawn alternatives?

Turf grasses

Ground cover

Fake grass

And, yes, lawn paint!