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SALT LAKE CITY -- ‘Tis (almost) the season for decking the halls. There are plenty of choices when it comes to decorating your home, but when it comes down to lights, which is better: LED or incandescent?
Dusty Atkinson made the switch to LED holiday lights on his home last year.
"We like the look and how vibrant the LED lights are," he said. "It's an upfront cost that you don't expect with the lights, but they last 10 times longer. They don't break, they save you money each year on your electricity, and they're a lot easier, a lot less hassle."
As Atkinson watched installers hang the last few strands, he's glad he made the switch.
Not everyone prefers the LEDs, however.
- Price: It's a toss-up. While operating costs for LEDs are lower, LEDs can be a bit more expensive than incandescents per string.
- Energy use and costs: LEDs won. They used 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy, compared with 12 to 105 kWh for the incandescents, saving $1 to $11.
- Durability: LEDs won. All LED bulbs were working even after 4,000-plus hours, while each string of incandescents had one or more bulbs burn out before 2,000 hours.
- Brightness: Incandescents won.
See Consumer Reports' full take online.
Jacob Strack, an installer for Lit by Swamptec, said, "Me personally, I like the look of the incandescent versus the LED, but it's all about preference."
Shane Atkinson is a manager of Modern Display, a Salt Lake City holiday design store. He talked about the difference between the two.
"They both have the same amount of lights on them, but you're a lot different in brightness, and you're getting a lot better quality with the LED," he said. "When it's dark you're going to get a brighter light out of the incandescent, but the LED is going to give you more vibrant light and a lot better color."
It all comes down to cost. The main difference, Atkinson says, is the cost of the strands up front.
"A normal 50 light set on the incandescent runs around $7 and an LED runs about $22," he said. "There's a major price difference. That's what keeps most people away from buying them."
The experts seem to be split on which type of light is best.
"If they've only got a small home with, like, 100 lights, you're really never going to see the cost savings from the energy going to an LED because you just don't have enough lights burning," Atkinson said.
"If you're installing yourself I actually would recommend LEDs, because you're going to own the lights and they're going to last longer. And, they're going to be easier to install because, like I said, you won't run into as many electrical issues," Strack said.
One more tidbit: You can customize lights by color and by length, but they must be commercial-grade, but you usually can't get commercial-grade at the big box stores.
Email: corton@ksl.com
