Christmas time can be Eco-friendly time
Every year we all get excited for Christmas and all that comes with it. Celebrating our saviors birthday and our reason to believe, being able to show our love to each other in a thoughtful gift, decorating outside and inside, getting together with family and friends, are a few of the things I look forward to. Some of these things are priceless, and then again some of them are not. This season lets make an effort to think of somethings to help not make such a dent in our wallets along with smaller effects on the Eco-system.
My first thought is the Christmas lights. One thing you can change easily and it will still look really nice. LED lights are not new but they are much more Eco-friendly than their former partners, the incandescent lights. Some of the straight forward reasons are that LED lights use up to 30% less electricity than the incandescent which can save you up to $10 a month in your electric bill. They burn cooler, making tree fires almost non-existent. There are around 14 people a year killed in tree fires. I have felt my incandescent lights before and was shocked at how hot they got, combine that with a dried out tree and you have yourself a disaster waiting to happen. They make everything you could think of in LED lights. Christmas tree lights, outside lights, candle shaped lights for your windows and so much more.
Another product you can purchase for a moderately small amount of money and in return save a moderate amount of money, energy, and cold fingers is a timer. I say cold fingers because if you have ever set up lights outside you know that by the time you want to turn them off it is usually freezing cold. If you place a outside solar timer with your lights and set the time, your lights will turn on and off with out you having to dress up and go outside to turn them off. Not to mention you will never have to worry about annoying your neighbors with lights on all night or wasting a lot of energy/money. They also make them for inside usage. You just plug them in set the times and forget about it.
There are so many things one can do each year to help save energy, and possibly money. Start a new tradition to reduce, reuse, and recycle each Christmas. Reduce the amount of energy usage, reuse lights and decorations, and recycle things like cardboard boxes and paper instead of throwing them in the trash. Hope everyone has a happy and healthy Christmas Season. God Bless.
Resource- Statistics from: http://gizmodo.com/323951/the-pros-and-cons-of-led-christmas-lights
