their home and save money in the long run

Molica said a string of 300 incandescent holiday lights - which is about average - costs the average Bay Area customer $70.40 in energy during the approximately six-week holiday season. That's compared with 43 cents for the same number of LED lights. That means you save $70 a season if you switch out led high bay light incandescent lights to LED lights.It is impossible to say how many people have switched, but for the past two years PG&E has been offering exchanges and incentives to residential customers, building owners and merchants to put up energy-efficient lights.

Fillmore Street merchants switched out their old lights last year. Virtually all the lighting on Fillmore from Geary to Jackson streets is now energy efficient. Mission District and Noe Valley merchants also switched to LED lights last year, Molica said.More options are also available for consumers. In November, Home Depot offered $3 certificates toward LED lights for people who brought in their incandescent holiday lights. The store also doubled to 30 its selection of kinds of string lights. The store sells 138 eco-friendly yard decor items, artificial trees and other products with energy-efficient lights in them.

"In tough economic times, people still want to celebrate the holidays, so we are trying to make it more affordable to do so," said Kathryn Gallagher, the spokeswoman for Home Depot, which sold 40,000 miles of Christmas lights a year ago, enough to circle the globe 1.5 times. "led high bay light is the trend. We've seen the interest grow and we're expecting to sell more this year. We are trying to educate our customers that they can do simple modifications to their home and save money in the long run.