On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:48:00 -0500, Brooklyn1 Gravesend1 wrote:

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

They (mini incandescents) are available everywhere here, usually in more
varieties than LEDs. I don't like LEDs, much. The flicker is annoying (the
PF has to be horrid) and the "white" ones are really ugly.

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 toss the strings every few years but I have enough to last a long time. I
buy them after Christmas for about $1 per string. I have 20 strings, or so,
that I haven't opened yet.

I now use all LEDs; my electric bill
increase for the holiday season is barely noticeable,

Of course you ignore the cost of the LED strings.

but most importantly LEDs are far safer (no heat).

Nonsense. You're making excuses to justify your expense.

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.

You *really* are forgetting the cost of the lights.

Now I'm waiting for the
solar LEDs to come down in price.

Solar LEDs? guffaw

If someone offered me the
incondescents for free I'd not take them.

Choice is a good thing.

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.

More nonsense.

On 12/13/2010 7:47 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:48:00 -0500, Brooklyn1Gravesend1 wrote:



I now use all LEDs; my electric bill
increase for the holiday season is barely noticeable,

Of course you ignore the cost of the LED strings.

The mini incandescents are particularly inefficient. About 40W or so/
100 string.

Run that for a few weeks most all the time and you've easily got
$2/string. The incandescents were always a pain to keep them all going
and usually easier to throw away. IMHO, the advantage in cost and time
is LEDs.

Now, I don't like the larger c9 or so LED lamps as it is just one
little light in a shell (what I've seen). The hot lamps are some power
gluttons though and storage was always more hassle. Mine rarely get used
as a result.


but most importantly LEDs are far safer (no heat).

The minis (hot lamps) are pretty harmless, the larger sizes require
caution. The cause of many many a house fire at one time.

I'm not sad to see the mini incs fading away. The others I'm more
sentimental over. Efficiency isn't everything. XMAS is all about
throwing money away, after all. Up to a limit.

Jeff

On Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:48:50 -0500, Jeff Thies wrote:

On 12/13/2010 7:47 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:48:00 -0500, Brooklyn1Gravesend1 wrote:



I now use all LEDs; my electric bill
increase for the holiday season is barely noticeable,

Of course you ignore the cost of the LED strings.

The mini incandescents are particularly inefficient. About 40W or so/
100 string.

More like 25W.

Run that for a few weeks most all the time and you've easily got
$2/string. The incandescents were always a pain to keep them all going
and usually easier to throw away. IMHO, the advantage in cost and time
is LEDs.

What exactly does "a few weeks most of the time" mean? 25W, five hours a day
for a month costs about thirty-five cents.

Now, I don't like the larger c9 or so LED lamps as it is just one
little light in a shell (what I've seen). The hot lamps are some power
gluttons though and storage was always more hassle. Mine rarely get used
as a result.

I bought about $150 wroth of those two years ago. *UGLY*. I threw them away
when I took them off the house, and bought thirty, or so, sets of incandescent
lights for 1/5 what I paid for the LED strings.

but most importantly LEDs are far safer (no heat).

The minis (hot lamps) are pretty harmless, the larger sizes require
caution. The cause of many many a house fire at one time.

Ya gotta talk apples to apples.

I'm not sad to see the mini incs fading away. The others I'm more
sentimental over. Efficiency isn't everything. XMAS is all about
throwing money away, after all. Up to a limit.

Except they're not fading away at all. Economics isn't with LEDs, at least
not yet.

zzzzzzzzzz wrote:

[snip]


I bought about $150 wroth of those two years ago. *UGLY*. I threw them
away when I took them off the house, and bought thirty, or so, sets of
incandescent lights for 1/5 what I paid for the LED strings.

I suppose you're taking about the white ones. They're "ugly" only only if
you're used to the light yellow (of incandescents) instead.

BTW, you might know that yellow is almost the same color as brown.

Anyway, we need more colors (and those LEDs are much better). All those
white (or light yellow) displays are too boring.

[snip]

--
8 days until The winter celebration (Saturday December 25, 2010 12:00:00
AM).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

"Humanism : An exaltation of freedom, but one limited by our need to
exercise it as an integral part of nature and society." -- John Ralston
Saul, The Doubter's Companion