Contact: Priscilla Knight, 703-392-1580, pknight@novec.com
MANASSAS, Va. — The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative wants its customers to remember safety and energy conservation when they string lights on Christmas trees and holiday displays this season.
“Electric lights bring holiday cheer, but they can turn joy into tragedy if they are not handled carefully,” cautions Mike Curtis, vice president, NOVEC Public Relations. “Consumers can make the season bright with less electric power by using modern LED holiday light strings instead of the incandescent colored lights most of us grew up with.”
NOVEC’s Holiday Lighting Electrical Safety Tips
- Look for the Underwriters Laboratories label on all holiday light sets to make sure they meet UL safety standards. Buy sets according to indoor use, outdoor use, or both.
- Because hot bulbs can ignite dry tree branches, keep cut Christmas trees well watered.
- Miniature incandescent lights and light-emitting diodes (LED) use much less energy than traditional lights. Consequently, it’s unlikely they will become hot enough to catch trees on fire or burn fingers.
- Keep a working fire extinguisher handy.
- Be sure smoke detectors have new batteries and are working properly.
- Before attaching lights, check for frayed wires, damaged sockets, or cracked insulation. If any defects are found, replace the entire light set.
- To minimize fire and shock danger, make sure a bulb is in each socket. If a bulb burns out, leave it in and unplug the light set. Then replace the bulb.
- Don’t connect more than three light strings. Cords can overheat and start a fire.
- Keep indoor extension cords and light strings away from water.
- All outdoor cords, plugs and sockets must be weatherproof.
- Make sure each circuit has a ground fault circuit interrupter.
- Never leave lighted candles unattended. Responsible adults should monitor them at all times. Never light candles on a Christmas tree.
- Always unplug holiday lights before going to bed or leaving the house.
Energy-Saving Holiday Lights
Curtis recommends keeping holiday lights on for no more than six hours a day to keep energy use under control. He says timers make this easy.
Old-fashioned, two-inch (C-7) bulbs each burn about 5 watts of electricity while miniature incandescent lights burn about 0.4 watts each. Miniature LED lights consume about 0.04 watts per bulb — 90 percent less than miniature incandescent bulbs. Lighting an eight-foot Christmas tree with comparable illumination, five hours a day for 30 days, would cost approximately $10 for incandescent C-7 bulbs, $2 for incandescent miniature bulbs and $0.20 for miniature LED bulbs.
“LEDs last a long time — typically more than 60,000 hours — which means consumers would probably never have to change a bulb,” explains Curtis. “Long life and low energy consumption make LED lights very cost-effective despite the higher purchase cost.”
Fiber Optic Artificial Trees
A single bulb illuminates a fiber optic artificial tree through hundreds of tiny fibers running through branches. Some trees come equipped with a rotating color wheel that changes the color emitted from the fibers.
Because fiber optic trees only emit light, they are cool to the touch and therefore safer than trees decorated with hot, traditional incandescent lights.
For more information, visit the Electrical Safety Foundation International at http://www.holidaysafety.org/ and the Energy Ideas Clearinghouse at www.energyideas.org/documents/factsheets/HolidayLighting.pdf.
