UST has a little more jingle this season, thanks to new energy-efficient Christmas lights.
UST goes LED: New Christmas lights as energy-efficient as they are beautiful
The next time you grumble a bit when you're putting up the old Christmas tree lights, think about this: You could be replacing 28,860 of them.
That's what workers from St. Thomas' electrical shop did this year. UST staffers Dan Hoffman, Brian Radke, Bob Haider and Joe Thompson (God bless 'em, every one) removed all of the old light strings from the St. Paul campus trees, repaired the wiring (a favorite treat for squirrels), replaced all the bulbs with LED bulbs and put the whole works back up.
No blue light specials this year: True Tommies grin when they see the purple lights on the deciduous trees. And the evergreens twinkle white.
Everybody will smile when the Xcel Energy bill comes next month. The cost for powering last year's Christmas lights was nearly $6,000. This year, it's going to be little more than $500. The new lights dazzle with environmental friendliness and energy savings.
