Energy efficiency and Christmas

I do love Christmas. I love the festivities, trying to keep up with too many holiday functions, eating more sugar than (I think) all the rest of the year, making myself work out several times a week to make up for that, the inspirational spiritual aspect, the colors...it's just a fun time of year, and a nice consolation for the decreasing hours of daylight and the increasing cold for those of us who live in cold climates.

I've spent several days this month drawing Christmas cartoons while I listen to Christmas music. I almost feel guilty. But not quite.

Speaking of guilt, I know that even the mini Christmas tree lights use a lot of electricity, especially when you add up all the trees around the world at Christmastime, so we decided to buy LED lights for the tree this year. We bought them on Black Friday at a big discount. Now they're on the tree, and I like them a lot. White LED lights often look bluish outdoors, but on our tree, they look fine. They're also bright enough to light up the ornaments; our old mini lights were too faint. The blue, especially, is a beautiful, rich, almost mysterious color. And they come in different shapes, so you can have tiny dots of light or big, honkin' old fashioned bulbs. There are even special versions of white LED strings if you want the traditional warm color for your outside decorations. Target is one source of many.

LEDs use much less energy than any other type and will last for years longer No more studying strings of lights each year to figure out which bulb burned out and is causing the whole thing to fail--even though the box said they all stay on if one goes out! I read recently that we may all be using them as our primary light sources in our homes within three years. They're expensive for anything but tree lights now, but as demand and production increases, prices will drop. Of course, the ultimate savings in energy already offset the initial higher cost of the bulbs, if you're willing to spend the money now. They screw into standard sockets, so it'll be easy to convert as prices allow.

My dream (one of many) is to have a house with prewired sockets in all the windowsills so an LED candle can just be plugged into each window and be controlled from a central switch. They don't get hot, so there's no worry about melting window shades or burning curtains.

If you don't have them now, look for LEDs the day after Christmas at bargain prices. And remember, if you throw out fluorescent lights--don't! Fluorescents have a little bit of mercury in them and shouldn't be dumped into the environment. Recycle them. Most municipalities do now. If not, go here to find out more about how to recycle them.

The season is even more fun if you feel like you're doing something good for others, and this is an easy way to do that. And it's good for you too.