MEDIA RELEASE

The holidays are a magical and special time of the year when we decorate, prepare sweet and savory home-cooked meals, and welcome guests to our homes. As you celebrate the holiday season with family and friends, Hawaiʻi Electric Light offers practical tips to help make your celebrations safe and festive.

Protect your home and loved ones with these safety tips:

• Buy holiday lights that bear the mark of a safety standards testing lab, such as UL, ETL, or CSA.
• Decorate with ENERGY STAR®-certified, decorative light strands. Bulbs are cool to the touch, reducing the risk of fire.
• For decorating outside, buy light strands, lighted displays, and extension cords rated for outdoor use.
• Before stringing holiday lights, check for frayed wires, cracked insulation, and damaged sockets. Replace defective light strands.
• When decorating outdoors, keep yourself, your ladder, and decorations at least 10 feet away from overhead power lines.
• Don’t use staples or nails to hang light strands, and don’t hang them on metal rain gutters and railings or on chain-link fences.
• Turn off or unplug light strands and lighted displays when you go to bed or leave the house.

Make memories while saving energy and money with these simple, low-cost ways to save:

• Shorten showers.
• Wash clothes in cold water.
• Air dry dishes.
• Limit how often and how long you open the refrigerator and oven.
• Use ENERGY STAR® appliances.
• Eliminate energy sneakers by using a power strip to turn off devices not in use.

More helpful tips can be found in our “Energy Tips & Choices” handbook available at our business offices in Hilo and Kona and our website: www.hawaiielectriclight.com/energytoolkit.