On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:16:49 -0500, Jeff Thies
wrote:

On 12/11/2010 10:37 AM, James wrote:
Ok, so this year I went out to buy some more outside Christmas lights. Much
to my surprise, I could not find any REAL lights, just the fake led lights.
I looked at all the big box stores, including Lowe's, Home Depot, and
Target. All I could find was the fake led lights.

I was just in Target. And before I even got to the LEDs the first string
I saw were C9 red incandescents.

Jeff

The incondecent holiday lights are not big sellers for residential use
anymore so many retail stores no longer carry them (some carry the
minis - Sears). Incondescents also require more than double the
warehousing space, there is lots of bulb breakage, and there are many
returns, but they are still readily available on line... there are
quite a few web sites, here's one:
http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/C7-C9-Bulbs.asp

I no longer use the incondescents, in fact a few years ago I tossed
lots of strings of them into the trash.... I didn't feel bad at all as
each season more than half those bulbs burn out so the ones I tossed
were very close to dying. I now use all LEDs; my electric bill
increase for the holiday season is barely noticeable, but most
importantly LEDs are far safer (no heat). And the new LEDs are very
bright and very colorful... even using 2-3 times as many hardly
affects electric useage. In fact I've been using LEDs for five years
now and not even one bulb has burned out. Now I'm waiting for the
solar LEDs to come down in price. If someone offered me the
incondescents for free I'd not take them. I think the LEDs look much
nicer too, nore twinkly, far more aesthetically pleasing than those
olde tyme clunky incondescents. The LEDs are easier to put up too,
they don't need to be orientated, with incondescents unless the bulbs
are all pointed in the same direction they look awful.