Being honest about outdoor lights that stay on all the time: do those bright lights make your power bill go up? Or, can you do something cheap to make your yard look great all night? Take a seat. I’ll talk about it one step at a time – go here to get most interesting topics!
First, the good news: most fixed outdoor lights these days use LED technology. LEDs don’t need a lot of power, like a hummingbird at a nest. Incandescent lights from the past? Since they need a lot of power, they should probably stay in the attic. Though LEDs give off a lot of light, they use up to 80% less power. People don’t just use that word in ads. The US Department of Energy thinks that an LED bulb with 10 watts of power might be as bright as a regular lamp with 60 watts of power. That’s six times better! Twenty 10-watt LEDs will use about 48 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power each month if you leave them on for eight hours every night. Electricity costs about 16 cents per kWh in the U.S., which means that your bill will go up by less than $8 a month.
Smart settings and timers are also very important. At this point in time, most devices let you choose when the lights go on and off. Something that works all day? That’s even better. Did you forget to turn off the patio lights at 11 p.m.? As long as you don’t turn them on or off, you won’t wake up any rats in the area all night.
Some light bulbs that save energy can last up to 25,000 hours, which is a long time. That means less trash and fewer trips up the ladder to change out lights that have burned out. Outdoor lighting that stays put will make your house look great and won’t make you sick when you get the bill. Don’t feel bad about letting your things shine.