If you’re a big fan of the festive season, but worried about being hit by a huge bill for the additional energy used by Christmas lights, there are a few ways you can save money, beyond making the switch to LED lights.
Delaying the switch-on of your lights could save you hundreds of pounds.
On Wednesday Sky News reported UK households will spend £189m lighting up their trees this year – £7 per household if they use LED lights.
But the additional cost of extra lights – including those outside – quickly adds to that cost.
Creditfix, a personal insolvency provider, gathered product information on 16 different types of popular indoor and outdoor lights sold at Argos and Wilkos and then looked at the wattage to understand how much it would cost to run over a six-hour period.
It calculated that households who had all 16 lights on for six hours a day would spend £510 if put up on 1 December and taken down on 31 December.
But waiting two more weeks would drop the cost to £279 – a saving of £231.
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The firm created a Christmas Lights Calculator to help people understand how much their displays could cost, and how much they could save with a simple delay – or a new type of light.
The most expensive light to run is a Santa rope light archway, costing £6.08 to run for six hours a day, which equates to more than £188 for the month.
But the good news is an average set of indoor mains-powered fairy lights would cost just 12p to run for six hours a day and a LED inflatable, such as an inflatable Santa, would cost £3.67 to run for the same period.
Invest in smart plugs or timers
With everyone trying to cut down on energy bills this winter, it may seem like you can’t afford to light up the tree.
But investing in smart plugs, or even mechanical timers could save you money if you forget to turn them off.
Mechanical timers – which will turn the lights off after a certain amount of time, start from just £7.45 in Homebase.
More advanced smart plugs, which you can control from your phone, or using smart devices, start at around £20.
