Green Holiday Lights
They are beautiful to look at and in many cases provide us with countless hours of conversation, so whats the big deal with the energy required to operate outdoor holiday decorations? A little higher power bill for the month of December has come to be expected. The problem is that when you take a major metropolitan area like Atlanta, and figure that outside lighting adorns probably 50% of all homes, when added all together there is a tremendous waste of power by simply not controlling how long the lights stay on. Energy efficiency has to do with, not only what kind of lights you use but also how long they remain illuminated.
Timing Is Everything
There is a simple way to fix this delima. Go to your local home improvement or hardware store and purchase a timer to use on your outdoor lighting. These timers can be as simple as allowing you to set the amount of time for you lights to remain on daily to containing photo cells to turn the lights on and off for you depending on when dusk arrives. All in all the photo cell timers are my favorite. You only have to set it once and that is when you are installing them initially. As an added benefit, if it is raining or has turned surprisingly cold, you don’t have to go out to do anything with these photo cell timers. They just come on and go off automatically and you determine the duration of how long your lights remain on.
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It amazes me how many homes keep their lights on all day every days during the holiday season. While I love to drive around with my daughter and look at the lights there is no reason to waste power during the day. I am lazy so the photocell timers that can tell if it’s day or night are my top pick, but you can always be cheap and buy a simple timer.
We are seeing more of the photo sensors on new construction for outdoor lights. This way the lights are one when you come home and it’s dark and never accidentally get left on all day.