During the festive season many of us like to decorate our homes with Christmas lights. Since the energy crisis we have become more careful when it comes to energy use. However we need not worry too much about leaving our decorative lights switched on. It currently costs just 60 cents to keep a set of led festive lights switched on for 8 hours a day for an entire month. This time last year it would have set you back 1 euro. A set of Christmas lights consisting of traditional light bulbs costs 7 times more to keep switched on than festive lighting with led bulbs.
Leaving the Christmas lights on during the whole of December will cost you just 60 cent
Published:
VRT News’ consumer affairs team examined whether you can make any significant savings by switching on you Christmas lights less often.
Kristof De Paepe is an energy expert that works for the price comparison platform Mijnenergie.be. VRT News asked him how much it would cost to keep a set of Christmas tree lights burning during the whole of December for 8 hours each day.
Led lights: 60 eurocent per month
Led lighting uses much less electricity than traditional bulbs. "A set of lights comprising 240 led bulbs has a power of around 7 watts. If you keep it switched on for 8 hours a day during the whole of December you will have used 1.736 kWh of electricity. In terms of money it would cost you 60 eurocent to keep the led lights in your tree burning”, Kristof De Paepe said.
This figure is only an average and the led bulbs used in some sets of Christmas lights that are on the market are even more energy efficient.
Traditional bulbs: 4 euro per month
If you still have a Christmas light sets consisting of traditional light bulbs it was cost you a lot more to keep them switched on during the festive season.
"Of course the amount of energy that classical light bulbs use is different. Classical light bulbs use 7 times more electricity than led lamps. A set of Christmas lights with classical bulbs would cost you 4.2 euro to keep switched on 8 hours a day for a whole month”, Kristof De Paepe said.
Nevertheless, there are people that swear by traditional bulbs as they feel that they give a feeling of greater warmth.
"However, the cold, white image that led bulbs have is outdated. These days you have led bulbs in all possible kinds of warm colour combinations”.
Can you save cash by making the lights flicker?
Do your lights consume less electricity if they are in flashing mode? "When the lights flash, you always have short periods in which the light is not on. So you could say that this results in savings. Except that the control mechanism for flashing function often also consumes electricity.", Kristof De Paepe told VRT News.