Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without sparkling lights.
But are some better than others? In a light fight, who would win: old-school incandescent lights or the new, too-cool-for-school LED ones?
Five things you need to know:
- You join us ringside here as the old school incandescent Christmas light enters the ring. He’s a heavyweight with a filament inside that electricity causes to heat up and glow. Very impressive and extremely Christmas-like!
- But look: Here’s the new LED light using electricity and semiconductors inside a diode that helps electron collisions to release energy that makes light. Complex! But what’s this, no heat? LEDs are a very cool customer, so they have nailed that round.
- Round two, and the incandescent light comes out swinging — because they’re pretty cheap to buy. But wait a minute, the new school LED lights are countering as, according to studies, the old school lights hit your power bill as they release 90% of their energy as heat making them way more expensive to run. That's unlike the LEDs, which barely hit your bill at all and pay for themselves very quickly over time — bringing big electric bill savings down your chimney! Bam! That's aother round to the LEDs.
- Back to the action: An incandescent light is coming out with one last desperate bid, saying they look “nice” and that your grandparents will love them because they’re retro, when in fact, they’re actually not very long-lasting.
- Here comes the LED. Will it be an uppercut? No, just a gentle tap and the incandescent is broken! Just so delicate, unlike its new cousin, the LED, which is going to be with us for decades and will still keep running without replacement — even if you leave it in the loft in the hot or cold. Now that’ll impress Grandpa!
So there you have it: a knockout win for LED Christmas lights. Looks like the LED has got this Christmas holiday all lit up.