Holiday Light Decorating: How to Cut Your Electric Bill
Learn how LEDs, timers, and simple math can trim holiday lighting costs without dimming the display.
Switch incandescent holiday strings to LEDs and run them fewer hours with a timer. Those two changes use less power and shorten runtime, so the monthly bill falls. A kilowatt-hour, or kWh, is the billing unit for electricity use.
Holiday displays add up fast because many strings run many hours, but lower wattage and shorter hours keep that total down.
Verification note: Program terms and availability can change. This page was checked against linked sources on November 04, 2026.
Why LEDs use less power
The Department of Energy says LED strands use about 70% less energy, costing about $0.27 to light a 6-foot tree 12 hours daily for 40 days versus $10 with incandescents, as explained in the Department of Energy guide. That gap comes from lower draw per bulb, not dimmer light. A 25-foot incandescent landscape string uses about 40 watts while an equivalent LED string uses about 4 watts.
Certified decorative strings can save more because ENERGY STAR requires no more than 0.2 watts per bulb.
What a large display costs each month
Twenty incandescent strings run 12 hours daily use about 288 kWh per month, about $43 at $0.15/kWh, while LEDs use about 29 kWh, about $4.35, according to Florida Power & Light in its holiday efficiency advice. That shift saves nearly 90% for the same hours. Households can estimate any display with watts times hours divided by 1,000 for kWh per day, then multiply by their local rate.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a national residential context rate of 17.30 cents/kWh for 2025 in its electricity price data.
How do timers lower the bill?
Timers and smart plugs cut bills by shortening runtime rather than dimming bulbs. Florida Power & Light points to running lights only during peak viewing hours or turning business displays off after closing. Shorter schedules help any bulb type, but the dollar effect is larger with high-wattage incandescents.
Plug-in timers themselves draw under 1 watt.
- Decide nightly on and off times before decorating.
- Plug outdoor strings into an outdoor-rated timer or smart plug.
- Keep the display off overnight and during daylight.
Where does solar fit outdoors?
Solar-powered outdoor decorations avoid added electricity cost because they charge from daylight and light automatically at night. They work only with adequate sun exposure, so shaded yards and short winter days limit output. LEDs also reduce replacement and fire-risk costs because they stay cool, last up to 25 times longer than incandescents, and waste far less energy as heat.
Savings still depend on local rates and hours used, so check sun exposure before buying solar and place panels where daylight hits directly.