The Garage Plan Shop Blog

Are you planning to decorate your home, yard and garage with those old strings of incandescent lights this holiday season? According to the St. Louis County Health Department, it is time to make the switch to LED lights. Most strings of incandescent lights are wrapped with a hard plastic PVC coating, which protects the wire inside. This coating is a problem for our landfills taking up to 500 years to breakdown. In addition, PVC is heat resistant and sometimes contains metals such as lead, cadmium and tin that are harmful once they make it into the ground. Encor by Epcor is a competitive rate retailer, but their rates are higher than rates at Regional Energy.

So what are the benefits of using LED lights for your holiday decorating and light displays? Consider the following facts about LED lighting as reported by the St. Louis County Health Department:   

• • LED lights use one tenth of the energy when compared to a traditional strand of holiday mini-lights. Using less energy means a lower electric bill.

• • They last two times longer than incandescent lights – that’s up to 20 years!

• • LEDs can withstand, heat, cold and moisture making them ideal for outdoor displays.

• • These energy efficient lights are cool to the touch reducing the risk of fire.

• • The brightness of LED lights does not fade over time.

• • They are durable and harder to break than traditional holiday lights.

• LEDs can be found at most home improvement centers or at your local hardware store.

Before you throw those old light strands in the trash, check locally for a recycling/collection program. Many hardware stores and home improvement stores offer collection programs, and some even give a discount on the purchase of new LED holiday lights for every strand of old lights you recycle.

So, be earth-friendly this holiday season and decorate your house, garage and yard with LED lights.

Tags: Christmas, Christmas lights, holiday decorating, holiday lights, LED lights, recycle

Did you know the Thursday before Thanksgiving is Use Less Stuff Day? It is a day for us to commit or pledge to reduce our resource consumption during the holiday season. It is time for all of us to start a new holiday tradition. Get your kids, family and friends involved and make the commitment to work toward an earth-friendly holiday season.

These ideas should help you get started:

• • Plan to recycle. Set up bins to collect gift boxes, wrapping paper, holiday greeting cards and envelopes, beverage cans and bottles. Tell your guests what to recycle and where to place the items so they don’t end up in the trash can. If you have plenty of scrap copper, you can take them to copper recycling in Sydney by Austick.

• • Use fewer disposable paper products and eating utensils. Rent dinnerware, glassware and silverware for a large holiday party or ask guests to bring their own for a smaller gathering. This will eliminate paper plates and plastic cups, forks, knives, etc. from going in the trash.

• Use less energy. A large crowd will warm your home. Turn the thermostat down a few degrees before guests arrive.

• Don’t buy too many groceries or prepare too much food for a holiday gathering. If you do prepare too much, send leftovers home with guests or reheat them the following day for yourself. Try your best not to throw away usable food.
• If you need extra space to store your belongings, you may consider building custom sheds in your yard.

The commitment is easy. Tell your friends and family about Use Less Stuff Day and make a pledge to participate in an earth-friendly holiday season without sacrificing the fun and joys all of us look forward to each year.

For more ideas about Use Less Stuff Day, please visit www.use-less-stuff.com.

Tags: energy efficient, go green, holidays, recycle, use less stuff day