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SALT LAKE CITY -- This is the time of year when driving down the street or visiting a shopping center takes on a whole different feel. The holiday lights are coming on for the 2010 holiday season, by the millions!
From city to city, house to house, tree to tree, it's just not the holidays without a little extra illumination, indoors and out. When it comes to lights, the more the merrier.
Danica Farley, with the Downtown Alliance of Salt Lake, certainly agrees. "We have more lights downtown this year than we've ever had in the past, over one million bulbs," she said.
She says there are 19 miles of Christmas light strands covering trees and buildings from Temple Square to the Gateway to Energy Solutions Arena, down 3rd south and the Broadway District, and Main Street up to South Temple.
Obviously, all this extra lighting in the months of November and December suck up more power, but holiday lighting is becoming more green. Manufacturers are moving away from the incandescent lights, to the light emitting diodes, or LEDs. They're richer in color and cost a lot less to operate.
Jeff Hymas, with Rocky Mountain Power media relations, said, "LEDs are more energy efficient and can save up to 80 percent of the electricity that's used by conventional incandescent mini lights and can last up to 10 times longer."
For a modest residential display, swapping incandescent lights for LEDs could reduce your bill $10 to $20 a month, depending on how many hours they're lit. For the big, commercial lighting projects, however, with thousands of strings, the savings can be huge.
That's why Trolley Square made the switch this season to all LEDs for its displays--indoors and out.
According to Dawn Katter, Trolley Square property manager, "Our Christmas decor is on 24/7 here. It goes on about the 19th of November and stays on until the end of the year, so that's a lot of use of daytime and night use of power that could be saved."
Temple Square has gone to LEDs, so has Hogle Zoo, with a million bulbs now burning. The big community trees in many Utah cities are using them. When you walk into Energy Solutions Arena, all the trees on the plaza are decorated with the energy efficient lights.
"The good thing about switching to LED is that the lifespan of your lights lasts a lot longer," Katter said."So the initial cost can be costly, but you will see that savings over the years."
"Over time, it's possible that regular incandescent lights will be phased out and you'll see more compact florescent and certainly more LEDs. That's a good thing because it'll mean people will use less energy, will have lower bills, it's better for the environment," Hymas said.
Farley added, "It makes you feel good because you're contributing to the health of now and to the health and future of our children and generations to come. We live in just a beautiful city, we want to keep it as green as possible."
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
