LED-fueled holiday lights go green

As more and more consumers are becoming familiar with the benefits of using LED bulbs, manufacturers are offering an increased selection of energy efficient holiday lights. Not only are they better for the environment, LED bulbs cost far less to operate than traditional holiday lights.

Even though the purchase price of LED holiday lights may be higher in some instances, they last five to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. In addition, the savings they provide on energy bills is substantial.

The average string of lights contains about 300 bulbs, and to power a string of incandescent bulbs for six weeks would cost between $70 and $71. A string of LED bulbs that size, on the other hand, would cost less than a dollar to power.

"That means you save $70 a season if you switch out 300 incandescent lights to LED lights," Joe Molica, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric, says to the San Francisco Gate. "It's a pretty dramatic savings, and it reduces your carbon footprint."

Many homes and businesses use far more than one string of lights, so the savings can add up quickly. LED bulbs also have the added advantage of producing far less heat than incandescent light bulbs, so the risk of fire is lower. Let this year be the year you switch to the lights that are cleaner, safer and less expensive to run.

Airports launch eco-friendly efforts to go green

Boston's Logan airport has set an example for various other U.S. airports by going green.

In an effort to save on energy costs and impress the travelers landing into or passing through the airport, a number of measures have been implemented. Hybrid taxicabs, wind turbines, solar plates and low-flush toilets have been introduced as some of the measures to make the aiport more eco-friendly.

With the recent rise in oil prices these measures to conserve energy has become a more urgent matter.

Although certain techniques to conserve energy that have been introduced are new, most of the others had been implemented at the airport for a long time now, such as more glass windows in order to have more natural light in the airport, low-wattage bulbs used for lighting and the usage of recycled materials during the construction of the airport.

A number of U.S. airports have also taken various other steps to make its facilities more eco-friendly. For example, the Seattle-Tacoma area, which nests the main headquarters for the Starbucks Coffee franchise, has its airports recycle 143 tons of ground coffee recycled after being transported to a local recycling facility and composted.

Elizabeth Leavitt, the airport's director says, "None of us imagined that it'd be of this magnitude."

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