How much does it cost to run Christmas lights in Michigan?

How much does it cost to run Christmas lights in Michigan?

The cost to run Christmas lights in Michigan is about $3 a season for a 100-foot LED roofline and about $39 for the same roofline in incandescent C9 bulbs. A 100-foot roofline of LED C9 bulbs draws about 58 watts. Run 6 hours a night for 40 nights, it uses about 14 kilowatt-hours (kWh), roughly $3.20 at 23.05 cents per kWh. The same roofline in 7-watt incandescent C9 bulbs draws 700 watts and uses 168 kWh, about $38.70.

Those figures use the average Michigan residential electricity price published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for July 2026, the most recent month in its Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A. The national average for the same month was 18.31 cents. Michigan's price ran about 4.7 cents above it.

How do you calculate the cost to run Christmas lights?

The cost to run Christmas lights is watts × hours per night × nights ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh. Dividing by 1,000 turns watt-hours into kilowatt-hours, the unit your utility bills in. A kilowatt-hour is 1,000 watts used for one hour, so a 700-watt incandescent roofline uses 0.7 kWh every hour it is lit.

The watt figure for Christmas lights comes from the box or the tag molded onto the cord. Some sets list watts, and some list only amps. Multiply amps by 120 volts for a close watt figure: a 100-count incandescent mini set from Northlight is rated at 0.34 amps and 40.8 watts, and 0.34 × 120 = 40.8. For C9 bulbs, multiply the watts printed on one bulb by the number of bulbs on the run. A plug-in watt meter between the outlet and the first cord reads the real draw if the tag is missing.

The price per kWh for the formula is on your bill. Divide the total electric charges by the kWh used that month to get an all-in price that includes delivery and surcharges.

What does each type of Christmas light cost to run on a 100-foot roofline?

Christmas light running costs on a 100-foot roofline range from under $2 to nearly $39 a season, depending on bulb type. The table uses manufacturer ratings: Creative Displays lists its LED C9 bulb at 0.58 watts and its 100-light warm white 5mm LED mini string at 9.6 watts over 33 feet, Northlight lists its 100-count incandescent mini set at 40.8 watts over 20.25 lighted feet, and Holiday Bright Lights rates its incandescent C9 bulb at 7 watts. C9 runs assume one bulb per foot.

The LED C9 roofline uses about one-twelfth of the electricity of the incandescent C9 roofline. Mini lights cost less to run than C9s of the same type because each bulb draws less. Why LEDs last longer and handle cold differently is covered in our LED vs. incandescent guide.

What electricity price should Michigan homeowners use?

Michigan homeowners should use their own utility's all-in price per kWh, and the EIA state average of 23.05 cents for July 2026 is a fair stand-in until a bill is handy. Both large utilities in Southeast Michigan charge more for summer peak hours, so the state's July average runs above its December one: EIA puts December 2025 at 19.53 cents against 20.55 cents in July 2025. A July figure keeps the estimate on the high side.

DTE Electric's standard residential rate is a time-of-day rate with a weekday peak from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. DTE lists the base rate at 18.44 cents per kWh off-peak and 20.05 cents during peak hours from October 1 through May 31. Those base rates leave out the Power Supply Cost Recovery factor and other surcharges, so the all-in price on a bill is higher. Lights that switch on at dusk spend roughly 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. of each weekday in DTE's peak window. On the incandescent C9 roofline above, the higher peak price adds well under $1 to the season; on LEDs it rounds to pennies.

Consumers Energy's standard residential rate bills all energy used from October 1 through May 31 at one price, with its weekday 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on-peak pricing applying only from June through September. On that standard rate, the hour Christmas lights come on does not change what each kWh costs in December. Customers on an alternative plan, such as Smart Hours or Nighttime Savers, have on-peak pricing year-round and should check those hours on their bill.

How much do long Michigan nights and a timer change the bill?

Long Michigan nights raise the bill only when the lights stay on for all of them, which is why a timer matters more than the season's length. In Macomb County the sun sets around 5 p.m. through most of December and rises between about 7:40 and 8 a.m., so darkness lasts about 15 hours a night. A light-sensing plug that switches on at dusk and off at dawn runs the display for all 15 of those hours. An outdoor timer set from dusk to 11 p.m. runs it for about 6.

The Michigan display season runs roughly from Thanksgiving week into early January, about 40 nights. A display left lit past the holidays keeps costing at the same nightly rate, and our guide on when to take Christmas lights down covers the usual dates. The table shows how the schedule changes the season's cost at 23.05 cents per kWh.

How much does permanent LED lighting cost to run year-round?

Permanent LED lighting costs about $25 to $34 a year to run on a 100-foot roofline lit 5 hours every night, at full output and 23.05 cents per kWh, depending on how closely the bulbs are spaced. Trimlight, one permanent track maker, rates its classic bulb at 0.6 watts and sells it at 6-, 9- and 12-inch spacing. At 12-inch spacing a 100-foot run holds 100 bulbs, or 60 watts, and 60 watts × 5 hours × 365 nights is about 110 kWh, or about $25 a year. At 9-inch spacing the same run holds about 133 bulbs, about 80 watts, or roughly 146 kWh and $34 a year.

Permanent systems usually run on a schedule from a phone app, so the yearly number depends on how many nights the track is lit and how bright it is. Permanent track runs on low voltage through a power supply, and the conversion loses a little energy, so the meter reads slightly above the bulb math. The installed cost against seasonal hanging is laid out in are permanent Christmas lights worth it.

Is circuit load the same question as the electric bill?

Circuit load and the electric bill are two separate questions: load is how many amps the lights draw at once, while the bill is how many kWh they use over the season. A breaker trips on amps, not on monthly cost. A display can be cheap to run and still overload a circuit if too much of it plugs into one outlet.

A standard 15-amp, 120-volt household circuit carries 1,800 watts, and the common practice for loads that run three hours or more is to stay within 80 percent of that, or 1,440 watts. The 700-watt incandescent C9 roofline draws about 5.8 amps, nearly half of that limit, before a porch light, a garage freezer or anything else on the same circuit is counted. The LED C9 roofline draws under half an amp. Individual sets have their own limit too: the Northlight incandescent mini set allows no more than 210 watts connected end to end, which is five sets.

How does a roofline measurement turn into a cost estimate?

A roofline measurement in feet drives both the cost to run Christmas lights and the price to install them, because bulb count and string count follow the footage. Multiply the lit feet by the watts per foot for your bulb type, then use the formula above. A 150-foot roofline in LED C9s at one bulb per foot draws about 87 watts, about $4.80 for a 40-night season at 6 hours a night.

Macomb Power Washing Solutions prices Christmas lighting from a $595 minimum, with no travel fee in any community it serves; what Christmas light installation costs breaks down that price, and how installers measure and price a roofline explains the footage. LightCast measures a roofline from one photo, and the footage it returns is what the estimate is built on. The same footage, run through the formula with your own price per kWh, tells you what the display will add to your December bill before anything goes up.