Oh sure, I know it's a bit early to talk about the holidays. But, I'm trying to beat the retailers who will regale you with holiday merchandise and decorations shortly before Thanksgiving. Even if you're not interested in the holidays, if you stick around you might learn about a new technology that could save you some cash and that will provide ideas for your portfolio, ho, ho, ho.

My upbringing was cushioned in the traditional white American Christian lifestyle, so I draw the following assumption from that experience: Every year, when the Christmas tree was temporarily installed in the living room, my mother would account for all the decorations and my father would - with a great amount of thinly disguised irritation - replace all the bulbs that had failed since the previous holiday in that string of lights that decorated our tree.

While I don't have an account of how much money my parents spent on tree lights over the years, I do know the failure rate - about 36-72 individual lights, or a whole box per year minimum. Additionally, these failed lights would be peppered throughout two to three strings of lights, so the work to replace them was both tedious and time consuming. Not to mention the money (again), which could fluctuate depending upon the size of the tree and the bulbs.

This year, any family who can relate to the above experience can alter that tradition with LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights. According to Dr. Nadarajah Narendran of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, LEDs will typically perform without dimming for 30,000 hours. Think eight hours a day for ten years, and you have a clue about how many hours of frustration you can avoid with these little puppies.

According to the AARP Magazine for November/December (Just one perk to getting older!), Seattle, Washington officials estimate that LEDs in holiday lighting will reduce electricity usage by 90 percent over conventional mini-bulbs. The downside is that LEDs are double or triple the price of regular mini-bulbs. But, if you calculate that cost over a decade, you'll end up saving money in the long haul. Did I mention the frustration you'll avoid as well?

Another advantage to these bulbs is that they don't heat up like other bulbs. This is a vital attribute if you want to avoid hot lights on drying pine needles. And, LEDs go beyond this service as a tree light. You probably have encountered LED lights in everyday use in lamps, spotlights, and digital clocks, auto brake lights and in traffic signals. But color was a problem. Most of these lights were surrounded by colored plastic to achieve different hues. This past year, however, Professor Shuji Nakamura won Finland's prestigious Millennium Technology Prize for developing LEDs in colors.

Now, if you don't decorate for the holidays and if you eschew consumptive behaviors, you might want to know Dr. Narendran's main focus in recent research was the lifespan of the LED light, as consumers were interested in knowing whether the LEDs were more efficient for the price than compact fluorescent lights - another energy saver. What he discovered is that LEDs provide competent competition for the fluorescents. Additionally, when that LED finally bites the dust, you won't need to contend with mercury as you determine how to dispose of that bulb.

But, now Americans have several solutions that will help to reduce power usage and - while many consumers might remain unenlightened about these products for a while - it also means that the time might be ripe to learn more about these products for investment possibilities.

If you go to How Stuff Works and read this article on LEDs, you can learn more about how these lights work and the components that are used in their construction. Basically, the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material illuminates LEDs. You're probably familiar with semiconductors, as they're at the heart of microprocessor chips as well as transistors. Any products that are computerized or that use radio waves (like RFID) depend on semiconductors.

It's the "D" or diode within the LED that is the simplest form of semiconductor device, and when this device is hooked up correctly it emits light. This light doesn't contain a filament that will burn out, such as in a conventional light bulb. This filament is also the culprit behind the heat that regular bulbs emit. This heat is behind the power loss that is saved when LED light bulbs replace regular bulbs.

The disadvantage to LEDs, as I mentioned previously, is cost. The semiconductor material is partly responsible for that cost, but so is the fact that a plastic rather than glass coating surrounds LED lights. However, LED lights also last longer because of the same reasons?they're difficult to break - the plastic makes them more durable. Basically, the lifespan would depend upon the reliability of the semiconductor, but - in the long run - the LED costs about the same as a regular light bulb because of that lifespan.

So before you go out to buy new tree lights, and especially if you run to the market to replace lights to cover that entire house, you might consider LED lights instead of traditional lights. You can find "Christmas LED lights" online today if you plug that phrase into any search engine.

Even if you don't believe in celebrating Christmas or decorating for the holidays, you could begin to conduct research into LED lights and semiconductors as investment possibilities. Or, you can purchase LED lights to replace those traditional light bulbs in your home to help conserve energy. Reducing carbon footprints would be a nice way to end the year.

Until Next Week,
Linda Goin