Arithmetic, not adjectives
What permanent LED lighting actually costs to run in Ontario
Everyone in this category quotes a flat monthly figure and shows no working. Ontario publishes its electricity price, so there is no excuse for that. Here is the multiplication, with the regulator's number, its effective dates, and a link to it.
Quick Answer
How much does it cost to run permanent LED lights in Ontario?
Buzz Lighting will not quote a flat monthly figure, because running cost is a calculation: bulbs, times watts per bulb, times hours, times your electricity price. The Ontario Energy Board set the current Regulated Price Plan prices on 1 November 2025 and they run to 31 October 2026. They range from 3.9¢ per kilowatt-hour ultra-low overnight to 39.1¢ at the dearest block, with time-of-use off-peak at 9.8¢. A 150-watt system burning six hours a night for sixty nights uses 54 kilowatt-hours, which is between $2.11 and $21.11 of electricity depending on which price applies. The variable we cannot fill in is watts per bulb: no supplier is chosen yet, so that figure comes from your quote and carries a manufacturer's name, not ours.
Half the calculation is public
The price is published
Ontario is an unusually easy place to be honest about this. The Ontario Energy Board sets the Regulated Price Plan once a year on 1 November and prints every price.
| Price plan | Block | Per kWh |
|---|---|---|
| Ultra-Low Overnight | Every day, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. | 3.9¢ |
| Time-of-Use | Off-peak | 9.8¢ |
| Tiered | Tier 1 | 12.0¢ |
| Tiered | Tier 2 | 14.2¢ |
| Time-of-Use / ULO | Mid-peak | 15.7¢ |
| Time-of-Use | On-peak | 20.3¢ |
| Ultra-Low Overnight | On-peak, weekdays 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. | 39.1¢ |
Source: Ontario Energy Board electricity rates and its announcement of 17 October 2025; hour blocks cross-checked against Toronto Hydro. Verified 11 August 2026, and they expire on 31 October 2026. If you are reading this after that date, check the link before you trust the table.
The other half is yours
Four steps you can check
- 1
Count the bulbs on your quote
Take the bulb or node count from the written quote, not from an estimate. Running cost scales directly with it.
- 2
Get watts per bulb from the manufacturer
Ask for the manufacturer name and their published watts per bulb, in writing. It is usually a range, because colour and brightness change the draw.
- 3
Convert to kilowatt-hours
Multiply bulbs by watts per bulb, divide by 1,000 for kilowatts, then multiply by hours per night and by the nights you will actually run them.
- 4
Price it at the Ontario Energy Board rate
Multiply the kilowatt-hours by the Regulated Price Plan price for the hours you run, then add your utility variable delivery charge and HST for the all-in figure.
On one line: bulbs × watts per bulb ÷ 1,000 × hours per night × nights × price per kWh. Nothing here is more complicated than that, and a figure you cannot reproduce with it is a figure worth asking about.
Filling in the blanks
Worked with a named manufacturer
We have no wattage of our own to give you. Gemstone Lights publishes theirs, which makes it checkable — the only standard this page holds itself to. They are not our supplier and this is not a recommendation.
Gemstone Lights states on its own site that its lights draw between 0.25 and 1 watt each depending on the colours used, and that a track light at maximum pulls one watt per bulb (guide, FAQ). Take a 150-bulb house, because it is a round number you can scale, and run both ends of that range.
| How it is run | Draw | Hours | Electricity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas season, brightest | 150 W | 6 h × 60 nights = 360 h | 54 kWh |
| Christmas season, one warm colour | 37.5 W | 6 h × 60 nights = 360 h | 13.5 kWh |
| Year-round accent, brightest | 150 W | 4 h × 365 nights = 1,460 h | 219 kWh |
| Year-round accent, one warm colour | 37.5 W | 4 h × 365 nights = 1,460 h | 54.8 kWh |
Sixty nights is roughly mid-November to early January. Change any input and the answer moves in a straight line: halve the hours, halve the kilowatt-hours.
Now price the 54 kilowatt-hours
The top row is the dearest realistic case: every bulb at the manufacturer's stated maximum, all season. Here it is at every price the OEB currently publishes, so the answer does not depend on us guessing which hour block your display lands in.
- at 3.9¢ per kWh$2.11
- at 9.8¢ per kWh$5.29
- at 12.0¢ per kWh$6.48
- at 14.2¢ per kWh$7.67
- at 15.7¢ per kWh$8.48
- at 20.3¢ per kWh$10.96
- at 39.1¢ per kWh$21.11
So: between $2.11 and $21.11 of electricity for a whole Christmas season, before delivery and tax. Run the same house year-round at four hours a night on the brightest setting and 219 kilowatt-hours costs $21.46 at off-peak or $44.46 at on-peak. On one warm colour it is 54.8 kilowatt-hours, or $5.37 to $11.12.
The regulator's price is not your all-in price
This is the part the flat-monthly-figure pages skip, and skipping it makes their number too low. The Regulated Price Plan price is the electricity line on your hydro bill. Under it sits delivery, part fixed monthly and part per kilowatt-hour, plus regulatory charges. Then the Ontario Electricity Rebate comes off as a 23.5 per cent credit on the pre-HST total, a figure the OEB announced alongside the current prices. Then HST goes on.
We will not give you one all-in cents-per-kilowatt-hour number, because it differs between Toronto Hydro, Alectra, Oakville Hydro, Elexicon and Hydro One, and we have not read your bill. Instead, the method: take a recent bill, subtract the charges that are identical every month regardless of usage, and divide the rest by the kilowatt-hours printed on it. That is your real cost of one more kilowatt-hour. It will be higher than 9.8¢, and it will still sit inside the bracket above, which already runs to 39.1¢.
A trap worth naming
Ultra-Low Overnight is the wrong plan for lights
The name does a lot of work. Ultra-Low Overnight really does price electricity at 3.9¢ per kilowatt-hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., the cheapest number the OEB publishes. It also prices weekdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 39.1¢, nearly four times ordinary off-peak, and that window is precisely when a display is on in December.
On the worked example, that season costs $5.29 at time-of-use off-peak and $21.11 at the ULO on-peak price. The whole gap is about sixteen dollars across sixty nights, so choose a rate plan on heating, an electric car and hot water, not on lighting this small. The lever worth pulling is the schedule: switching off at 11 p.m. rather than running to dawn removes most of the burn on any plan, for nothing. See how scheduling and dimming work.
What moves your number
Four inputs, in order of weight
Three of these are decisions you make after the install, which is the part most cost pages never mention.
How many bulbs
The biggest input, and your quote already answers it. A front elevation and a wrap around three sides are different numbers, and electricity scales with them in a straight line.
Colour and brightness
On an RGB fixture, white is made by lighting the red, green and blue emitters together, so white costs more to run than a single colour. Hence a published range, not a number.
Hours a night
Sunset in the GTA comes before five o’clock through December, so dusk-to-dawn is a long burn. Switching off at 11 p.m. is the largest saving available, and it costs nothing.
Whether you dim
Most systems dim by switching the LEDs on and off very fast, so draw falls roughly in proportion to brightness. Ask whether yours dims that way before relying on it.
What this page will not tell you
Not our watts per bulb, because no supplier is chosen and a wattage belongs to a manufacturer. When that decision is made the figure goes on the quote with the manufacturer named next to it, so you can check it against their sheet rather than against our enthusiasm.
Not the “up to 90 per cent less electricity” line either, because we have found no source for it that survives being looked at. And not a flat monthly figure. Gemstone Lights publishes an example: 150 lights, six hours a day, $4.34 a month. Divide that by the electricity each end of their own stated range would use and the implied price is roughly 16¢ per kilowatt-hour at one watt a bulb, or roughly 64¢ at a quarter of a watt. The first is plausible all-in. The second is not a price anyone in Ontario pays. That is a missing assumption rather than dishonesty, but a number you cannot reproduce is exactly what this page exists to avoid.
And not an install price. Our rate card is not settled, and we do not publish numbers we cannot stand behind. What drives that cost is on the pricing page; the figure itself comes after an on-site measure.
Questions & answers
On running cost
For what the system is and how it fixes to the house, start at permanent outdoor lighting.
Do permanent LED lights use a lot of electricity?
No, and the honest way to say so is with arithmetic rather than an adjective. A 150-watt system running six hours a night for sixty nights uses 54 kilowatt-hours. At the Ontario Energy Board time-of-use off-peak price of 9.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, published 1 November 2025 and in effect to 31 October 2026, that is $5.29. Even priced at 39.1 cents, the dearest block the OEB publishes, the same 54 kilowatt-hours is $21.11.
What is the formula?
Bulbs, times watts per bulb, divided by 1,000, times hours per night, times nights, times your price per kilowatt-hour. The two numbers you supply are the bulb count and the watts per bulb, both of which belong on your quote in writing. The price comes from the Ontario Energy Board.
Why will Buzz Lighting not tell me the wattage?
Because we have not chosen a supplier, and a wattage is a manufacturer specification rather than an opinion. When that decision is made the figure goes on the quote with the manufacturer named beside it, so you can check it against their own published sheet. An installer quoting a running cost without naming whose fixture it is has skipped that step.
Should I switch to Ultra-Low Overnight for my lights?
Almost certainly not. Ultra-Low Overnight prices electricity at 3.9 cents per kilowatt-hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., but it prices weekdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 39.1 cents, which is exactly when an outdoor display is on. On the worked example a season costs $5.29 at time-of-use off-peak and $21.11 at the ULO on-peak price, a gap of about sixteen dollars across sixty nights. Choose a rate plan on heating, a car and laundry, not on lighting.
Is the OEB price the whole cost per kilowatt-hour?
No. It is the electricity line only. Your bill also carries delivery, which has a fixed monthly portion your lights do not change and a per-kilowatt-hour portion they do, plus regulatory charges, then the Ontario Electricity Rebate as a credit of 23.5 per cent on the pre-HST total, then HST. For your own figure, take a bill, subtract the fixed monthly charges and divide the rest by the kilowatt-hours shown.
Does the system draw anything when the lights are off?
A little. Low-voltage systems run through a power supply, which draws a small amount on its own and loses some of what passes through it. A published per-bulb figure is the draw at the LEDs, not at the wall. Ask your installer for the system draw measured at the plug. It is a fair question and few people ask it.