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Discount-light-bulbs.com is lighting news community specializing in energy-efficient holiday lighting, offers the most efficient and reliable brand of LED holiday lights currently available. In recent testing of a variety of LED Christmas lights , the product offered by other Holiday LED suppliers outperformed the competition.

HolidayLEDs’ LED Christmas lights (and LED string lights of several other manufacturers) were sent to the EPA for testing under the ENERGY STAR program. The following are highlights of the results of the ENERGY STAR testing.

What is a LIFE TIME TEST. This test is designed to determine the performance of the product after extended use. All LED string light samples from the participating manufacturers were illuminated for a 24-hour conditioning period and then entered a 1,000 hour period of actual use.

ACCELERATED WEATHERING TESTS. After a 24-hour conditioning period, all lights sets were subjected to high humidity and UV radiation, simulating outdoor use for an extended period. All samples underwent 20 cycles of accelerated aging, 12-hours per cycle for a total of 240 hours.

Here is some more news:

Oct 15, 2008 – Alpharetta, GA — Alpharetta, Georgia-based Christmas Lights Etc. one of the largest U.S. suppliers of premium Christmas trees, decorations and holiday lighting for homes, commercial decorators and businesses is proud to announce its’ partnership with ENERGY STAR, a joint program by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

For years Christmas Lights Etc. has provided customers with low energy consumption, environmentally friendly products including LED Christmas Lights and pre-lit LED Artificial Christmas Trees, Christmas Wreaths and Christmas Garland. Today, in partnership with ENERGY STAR, Christmas Lights Etc. continues its commitment to a greener Christmas by offering consumers over 75 different products bearing the ENERGY STAR label. This to insure that customers are presented with the highest quality, longest lasting, environmentally friendly options that not only benefit their pocketbooks, but benefit the planet as well.

Consumers adopting environmentally-conscious LED holiday lighting can expect to reduce power consumption 80-90% over traditional incandescent holiday lighting. Speaking on the practical benefits of switching to LED Christmas Lights, a recent October 2008 announcement by the New York State Energy Research and Development Department (NYSERDA) encouraged residents to “Upgrade decorative or holiday lighting with ENERGY STAR qualified Light-Emitting Diode (LED) holiday lighting strands.” The department went on to note that “LED holiday lighting strands last up to 11 holiday seasons, rarely burn out and will save you up to $100 per year on your energy bill!”

Commenting on the significance of the ENERGY STAR Christmas Lights partnership, William Hale, President of Christmas Lights Etc. said: “We’re proud to partner with ENERGY STAR and to do our small part in encouraging our customers to switch to energy-efficient LED lighting in order to help reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy consumption. Today more than ever we invite our customers to experience the benefits of lower energy costs by switching to environmentally friendly ENERGY STAR certified LED lighting.”

About ENERGY STAR Energy Star is a joint program of the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy in encouraging Americans to take the Energy Star Pledge to Change a Light/Change the World. ENERGY STAR qualified products and practices meet strict energy-efficiency guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

About Christmas Lights, Etc. Christmas Lights, Etc. is a nationwide leading online retailer of premium Artificial Christmas Trees, Christmas Lights, Christmas Garland, Christmas Decorations, and Christmas Ornaments. Their products have been featured by the CBS Early Morning Show, Smart Money magazine, Wall Street Journal, and HGTV to name a few.

Dewey Finn is an adhoc reporter reporting on everything from LED Christmas Lights and Bulbs to …. He writes for magazines such as discount-light-bulbs.com

Maybe you’re buying a home to remodel, and the garage flooring isn’t in the best of shape. Or maybe you didn’t realize that a concrete garage floor could crack and come apart until it was too late, and now there’s really no way to apply paint or any other type of coating. It could even be that your garage flooded or the ground shifted, damaging the concrete in a way that could be neither foreseen or prevented. Regardless, there are many times where a garage floor covering is either desired or necessary due to a damaged floor.

Why Can’t The Concrete Just Get Fixed?

There are certainly methods that you can use to repair your damaged concrete, and smallish cracks can be painted over, but this won’t stop the cracks from expanding, as they most certainly will. For the most part, whatever it was that caused the original damage will probably damage it again. Because of this, if the floor is damaged enough, it’s smarter to just forgo the garage floor paint and go straight to the coverings. By garage floor coverings, in this case, we mean mats or garage floor tiles. In summary, pretty much anything that doesn’t merely coat the original concrete, but places a completely different type of material on top, one that is not chemically bonded. Both of the types of coverings that we will mention can be used on damaged floors, but not necessarily in every situation.

Garage Floor Tiles Aren’t Always The Answer

If you plan to use tiles on a floor with only smallish cracks, you may not need to do anything with the cracks before you do. This is because tiles can grip the garage flooring all around the crack, instead. Because garage floor tile really isn’t a coating, and is actually a separate material altogether, they may actually help hold things together and prevent expansion of old cracks as well as new ones. Just like any other garage floor coverings, the point is to cover any defects so that, while they’re still there, they’re not visible. Garage floor tiles are not ideal in situations where the concrete garage floor is stained, however. If you do use tiles in this case, the stains will end up “sweating”, and dissolving the sticky stuff that holds the tiles to the ground. When this happens, the tiles will lose their grip, and the floor won’t be in any better shape than it was before.

Garage Floor Mats Work In Almost Any Case

Sometimes the garage flooring just isn’t up to having much of anything stick to it. Luckily, a mat will do the job just as well when it comes to making it easy to clean up chemicals, and they can look really good as well. However, this is akin to sweeping the problem under the rug, and may end up causing even more trouble. Depending on just how bad your concrete is, there may be some edges that are jagged enough to tear the mat from underneath, especially when you drive a car onto it. The concrete can conceivably get worse, as well, since it will be covered up and you won’t really see it. One of the best things about a garage floor mat, though, is that it can be very easily replaced. Of course, this will only work if you can afford a new mat.

You May Not Have To Decide Your Garage Floor Covering

When it comes down to it, your choice of garage floors is pretty simple: if tiles will stick, then you can use either tiles or mats. If they won’t, for whatever reason, then you’re stuck with your choice of garage floor mats.

Check out Sweet Garage Floor for more info on garage floor coverings.