Solar Christmas lights: Are they worth it?

One of the best parts about the holidays is seeing all the light displays in your neighborhood. Whether you are decorating to impress or have fun, there is a good chance that a string or two of Christmas lights is part of your plan. They may not look like much, but they do use electricity–if you keep your string lights up for several weeks, you may end up with a surprisingly large electric bill after all those presents are unwrapped.

Luckily, there's a quick and easy way to keep your electricity bills down while still having a brightly decorated home–solar Christmas lights! Solar isn't just for your rooftop: it also offers a renewable alternative to conventional holiday lights. Solar Christmas lights are a great option for energy-conscious holiday decorators.

Solar Christmas lights are just like regular Christmas lights, except they are powered by the sun! Traditional Christmas lights use your home's electricity from the grid, which means you need to run an extension cord from an outlet to where you've hung your lights.

With solar-powered lights, you can forget the extension cord. Instead, your lights attach to a small solar panel that uses the sun's energy to charge an attached, rechargeable battery during the day. When the sun sets, a light sensor automatically turns your solar lights on using the battery.

Solar lights usually use LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs. LEDs are slightly less bright than traditional incandescents but are far more energy efficient and can run on just a few hours of sunlight stored in a battery. The small solar panel that powers solar Christmas lights is usually attached to a stake that you can place in a sunny spot in your yard to charge up the battery during the day.

Are your Christmas lights not working? Have you always wanted to light up the beautiful pine tree in your backyard but don't want to run an extension cord from your garage? Are you trying to make your next holiday season more environmentally conscious? These and more are great reasons to start shopping for solar Christmas lights.

When you shop for solar Christmas lights, there are so many options that it can be hard to sift through them. We've considered a few key factors when looking for your new solar Christmas lights.

Length

Depending on what you are trying to decorate, you might have a lot of areas to cover. Decorating a big tree or putting lights along your roof's entire edge? You'll need to look at how long the strand of solar Christmas lights you purchase is and whether it will cover the area you're trying to light up. If not, you may need to double or triple up and consider where to place the solar panels attached to those additional strands of solar Christmas lights.

Lights per strand

In addition to length, the number of lights per strand will determine how much light (and color, if you are using colored lights) you are adding to an area. The more lights per strand, the brighter you are lighting up the outside of your home or other parts of your property you are trying to decorate. The lights per strand will likely be proportional to the length of the string of solar Christmas lights, but it is worth checking to ensure you aren't purchasing a sparse string of lights.

Color options

Everyone has their own vision for how to decorate their home for Christmas, and the lights you choose should fit that vision. Whether you're going for a full display of white lights or you want the most colorful home in the neighborhood, make sure your solar Christmas lights come in the color you're looking for. All of the options below have multiple single-color choices, as well as multicolor options.

Solar Christmas lights will have a higher up-front cost than conventional plug-in options – however, you will ultimately save money via lower monthly electricity bills! In general, prices for solar-powered Christmas lights are around 30 to 50 percent higher than traditional Christmas lights. Because Christmas lights are not a very expensive item, to begin with, this price difference usually amounts to less than $10.

Investing in some strings of solar-powered Christmas lights is a great way to do your part in supporting energy-saving technologies during this holiday season. While they may cost more than standard lights up front, you will see savings on your energy bill depending on how long you choose to have the lights up, especially if you are extending the holiday season and displaying your lights from Thanksgiving through New Year's!

Buyer's guide: Solar Christmas lights

Jedavai

Jedavai solar Christmas lights come in two different colors–warm white and multicolor. Both options can operate in different light modes, including steadily on, twinkling, flashing, and more. These larger, ball-shaped lights can run for up to 10 hours on a full charge.

Joomer

The Joomer solar Christmas lights are visually similar to what you might think of as traditional strings of Christmas lights, with tiny lights densely packed onto the string. These lights would be great for decorating outdoor trees or bushes and come in a wide range of colors to let your decorating imagination run wild.

Toodour

The "crystal ball" style Toodour solar Christmas lights can be set to 16 colors: warm white, multicolor, red, green, and blue. You can change their color with the click of a button on a remote, allowing you to change up the color scheme of your light show on a nightly basis.

Ucutley

If you are trying to cover a lot of surface area with your solar Christmas lights, the Ucutley lights are perfect. They offer the longest string of lights on our list, with 300 individual lights per strand. These lights also have four different brightness options and eight different light settings, all adjustable via remote.

Can solar Christmas lights get wet?

Solar Christmas lights are designed to withstand the elements. You can leave them out in the rain and snow – ensure they are well secured to whatever you hang them on so that wind doesn't knock them down.

Do I need to charge my solar Christmas lights?

Solar Christmas lights are charged by the sun using their attached solar panel. You do not need to charge them separately from that. After you set up your solar Christmas lights, ensure the panel is placed in a sunny spot in your yard so that the battery on your lights can get a full charge. If you live somewhere that gets snow when your solar Christmas lights are up, you may need to ensure that the solar panel attached to your solar Christmas lights is not covered in snow after a snowstorm.

Will my solar Christmas lights work after a cloudy day?

Most solar Christmas lights are LEDs that only need a small amount of electricity to operate overnight, so even if there is an overcast day or bad weather, your lights can turn on and run overnight. 

Solar is a great way to light up your home for Christmas, but it can do so much more! The best place to compare options for home solar installations is the EnergySage Marketplace. By registering your property to get solar quotes, you can compare offers side by side from qualified, pre-vetted installers near you and speak with an Energy Advisor to discuss which offer is the best for you. If you want to see how much you can save by going solar, check out our Solar Calculator for an instant estimate based on your unique property. If you're a renter or unable to install solar on your property, check out our Community Solar Marketplace – with community solar, you can still expect to save between 5 and 15 percent annually on electric bills.