The 2011 Christmas Light Exchange Program offered by the Kerry Wood Nature Centre and the City of Red Deer was a success for the third year running. The project, funded by The City’s Electric, Light & Power department, gave out 804 strings of LED lights in trade for old inefficient, incandescent Christmas lights. Red Deerians traded in approximately 2,500 strings of incandescent lights in five weeks.

The LED strings are up to 96% more energy efficient than traditional incandescent Christmas lights, and they produce very little heat which reduces the risk of fire. They also contain no glass, are more durable and last up to 10 times longer than the old incandescent lights.

Since Red Deer’s Christmas Light Exchange program started in 2009 about 9,500 old inefficient incandescent lights have been traded in and recycled. This represents approximately 97,627 kWh of energy savings to Red Deerians. The energy saved since 2009 is enough to supply power for one year to 13 average Red Deer homes.

“Residents were just as excited this year about the program as they were in previous years; the lights just flew out of the Nature Centre,” said Todd Nivens of the Kerry Wood Nature Centre. “The great part about the exchange is the awareness it creates, numerous residents brought in more than the required two strings of incandescent lights and many indicated they were heading to local retailers to buy additional matching strings.”

Kerry Wood Nature Centre will keep the recycling bin at the Nature Centre for December if anyone still wishing to dispose of their old strings of lights in an environmentally responsible way.

Red Deerians are asked to conserve energy where they can, especially in this high-demand season. Small things like putting Christmas lights on a timer, changing as many incandescent lights to LED lights as possible and turning off the lights when you leave the room all help ease the demand on our system.

– Fawcett