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Christmas lights use surprisingly little electricity when they're LED. A 100-bulb LED mini strand draws about 4 to 6 watts, while a 100-bulb incandescent strand draws about 40 watts — roughly 8 to 10 times more. Run a 500-light LED display six hours a night for a month and you'll spend only about $0.30 to $0.60 in electricity total. The same display in incandescent bulbs can cost several dollars. Bulb type and hours run are what determine the cost.
How many watts do Christmas lights use?
Wattage is the number that drives everything else. The table below shows typical draw by bulb type, per 100 bulbs. Your total is the sum of every strand's wattage — check the box or the tag on the plug, which lists watts for that set.
| Bulb type | Watts per 100 bulbs | Relative cost to run |
|---|---|---|
| LED mini | 4–6 W | Lowest |
| LED C7 / C9 | 7–10 W | Low |
| Incandescent mini | ~40 W | High |
| Incandescent C7 | ~350–500 W | Very high |
| Incandescent C9 | ~500–700 W | Highest |
How to calculate your electricity cost in kilowatt-hours
The formula is short. Add the total watts of your display, divide by 1,000 to convert to kilowatts, multiply by the hours you run them, and multiply by your electricity rate. The U.S. average residential rate is roughly $0.17 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), though yours may differ. As a worked example: a 200-watt display run 6 hours a night for 30 days equals 200 × 6 × 30 = 36,000 watt-hours, or 36 kWh, which at $0.17 is about $6.10 for the season.
| Display | Total watts | 30-day cost (6 hrs/night) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 LED mini lights | ~25 W | ~$0.75 |
| 1,500 LED mini lights | ~75 W | ~$2.30 |
| 500 incandescent mini | ~200 W | ~$6.10 |
| Large incandescent display | ~1,000 W | ~$30.60 |
LED vs. incandescent wattage per 100 bulbs
The gap between LED and incandescent is the whole story. An LED mini strand draws about 4 to 6 watts per 100 bulbs. An incandescent mini strand draws about 40. That is eight to ten times more. Larger bulbs widen the gap. An LED C7 or C9 uses 7 to 10 watts per 100. An incandescent C9 can draw 500 watts or more.
This is why bulb type decides your bill. Two displays can look similar and cost wildly different amounts to run. A 1,000-bulb LED display draws roughly 50 watts total. The same display in incandescent draws hundreds. Read the wattage on each box and total your strands. Then use the kilowatt-hour math above to turn watts into dollars.
Why LED Christmas lights are so much cheaper
LEDs convert almost all their energy into light rather than heat, so they need only a fraction of the watts to produce the same brightness. That efficiency shows up twice: a lower electricity bill and a longer bulb life, since LEDs aren't burning a hot filament. For most homes the switch to LED cuts holiday-lighting energy by 80 to 90 percent. Our LED vs. incandescent Christmas lights guide compares them in detail, and are LED Christmas lights cheaper to run digs into the savings.
Simple ways to cut the running cost
- Use LED sets. The biggest single saving — up to 90 percent less energy.
- Add a timer. Running lights 6 hours instead of 12 halves the cost.
- Right-size the display. More bulbs mean more watts; use only what the space needs.
- Check the plug tag. The listed wattage lets you total your draw and avoid overloading a circuit.
Put simply, the electricity a Christmas display uses is driven by two things: the wattage of the bulbs and the hours they run. Choose LED bulbs to slash the watts, and add a timer to cut the hours. Do both and even a large, bright display costs only a few dollars for the whole season, with an incandescent version of the same display costing many times more to run.
Want the most efficient gear? See the best LED Christmas lights and the best Christmas light timer. Related: how many watts LED Christmas lights use, how many amps Christmas lights use, and the Christmas Lights 101 & Safety hub.
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