Making the Tree the Most Energy Efficient Ever
This Year’s National Christmas Tree to be the Brightest Yet
LED Technology Leads GE to create the Most Efficient National Christmas Tree in History
If households across the nation are working to “reuse and recycle” and reduce energy consumption, why shouldn’t the National Christmas Tree do it, too?
This was the inspiration behind GE’s design of the 2009 National Christmas Tree, now the most energy efficient in history, consuming about 6,000 watts compared to last year’s 18,000 watts. This year’s tree will be outfitted entirely in LEDs and will feature background lighting, a topper and ornaments all utilized in past designs.
“This is the first year that ornaments from previous years will be combined to create a whole new look for the National Christmas Tree,” said Mary Beth Gotti, Manager of GE’s Lighting Institute.
For the last three years, GE has been gradually trimming the tree with more LED (light emitting diode) lighting, which is powered by tiny computer chips, and has about ten times the life of traditional incandescent lighting. This year, the ornaments will also be retrofitted with LED bulbs to achieve the significant additional wattage reduction.
The lighting design features 750 strings of white LED lights, half of which are C5 LED lights reused from last year, and half of which are new LED crystal minis, giving the lighting a more three-dimensional look. Each string only costs 14 cents to run for the entire holiday season. The topper for the tree is the same heirloom topper used for the last three years—a 42-inch star made with industrial grade, warm white GE Tetra® LEDs. The ornaments all come from the tree’s recent history, with gold stars from 2008; white stars from 2004; and red and gold starbursts from 1998.
“Bringing out ornaments from storage was just the right thing to do,” said Mary Beth. “They are sturdy enough to be used multiple times, and updating them with LED technology provides impressive energy savings.”
GE has been designing the National Christmas Tree since 1962, producing and donating the lighting and decorations.
