One of the greatest parts of Christmas is seeing houses lit up for the festivities. Whether you go all out with snowmen silhouettes, inflatable Santas and lights hanging from your guttering, or simply have a Christmas tree, the power that costs to run these things costs money. At a time where people are watching their wallets, especially to do with the utility bill, we need to ask if Chirstmas lights use a lot of electricity to run. Do Christmas lights use a lot of electricity? Let’s have a look at how much money you will spend to power your Christmas lights this year.
How Much Do Christmas Fairy Lights Cost?
Christmas lights range in price, depending on the type you are buying, how many you are buying and of course, the time of year you are buying them. The supply and demand aspect comes into play here as retailers will charge what they want for these lights in the run up to Christmas. If you need them, you’ll pay what the shelf price is.
However, if you are able to buy them with a discount code or during a flash sale such as Black Friday, you might be able to save some money. Alternatively, wait for the post-Christmas sales (which often start before Christmas these days!) and grab a bargain to put away for the next festive season.
You also need to figure out how many lights you actually need. Measure out how many you need and buy the right length of string for your house or tree. Do Christmas lights use a lot of electricity?
How Much Electricity Do Christmas Lights Use?
Christmas lights do use power, but not actually that much. The amount of electricity used will vary depending on the manufacturer, the type of lights and the length of string you purchase. One of the best things about Christmas lights is that most of them come with a timer.
You can switch them on when the sun sets and leave them on for a few hours before going off automatically. These timers usually keep fairy lights on for six hours, which gives us a decent hourage to figure out the cost of electricity for powering your Christmas lights.
Alternatively you can connect them to your smart home system and use Alexa to turn them on and off when you want. we use a smart extension cable which allows us to power our external lights on and off at the touch of the app.
If you are using LED Christmas lights, which will be the most energy efficient and cost effective, you can figure out the amount of electricity they consume by looking at the details on the box. On average, you’re looking at around about 40watts for a string of 100 lights. This would be 0.04kW. If you look at your electrcity bill for how much you are paying per kWh, you’ll be able to figure hour the cost per hour.
How Much Money Do Christmas Lights Cost?
The new energy price cap for October to December 2023 is £0.27 per kWh. That’s 27p for a kW for an hour. This means you’ll pay 0.0108p for an hour of power to these lights. Let’s say you have your lights on for 6 hours a day for 30 days. That’s 180 hours x 0.0108p. That’s less than £2 for the entire Christmas season.
Imagine how much joy and laughter your lights will bring to your children, your neighbourhood and those people passing by, for less than a takeout coffee.
How To Save Money On Christmas
Now we’ve asked the question of do Christmas lights use a lot of electricity, we can look at other ways to cut the cost. There are lots of ways to save money on powering your Christmas lights, as well as on the whole Christmas season itself.
Firstly, we’ve already mentioned buying Christmas lights in the sale. This will slash the price that you are paying by 50%, maybe even 75% if you shop at the right time. You might also find better discounts online compared to in high street shops.
Next, simply switch off the lights sooner. Do they really need to be on until 11pm at night? How about switching them off at 9:30pm instead? Even though the cost of powering them is a few pence, if you switch them off sooner, you’ll pay less. This can add up to big savings if you have decorated your entire house and front garden with thousands of LEDs on hundreds of feet of string.
Other ways to save money on Christmas is by paying into a festive pot throughout the year. Rather than finding a lump sum of money at the end of November, you’ll have been putting cash away, little and often, to give yourself what you need when you need it. You should also talk to friends and loved ones about cutting the gift list. This doesn’t mean not having things under the tree for smiling kids on Christmas morning. Simply, we don’t buy a Boots gift set for our sister in law, or that parent on the school run. Everyone is looking for ways to cut the cost of Christmas so if you are the one to bring it up, you could actually take the stress off the shoulders of other people too.
Final Thoughts
Christmas can be an expensive time of year if we don’t keep a handle on our finances. Watching what we spend and setting a proper budget that we can stick to is so imporant, especially during the festive season. You don’t want to get into debt for one day and start the New Year a week later with a credit card bill landing on your doorstep. Enjoy the festive season with lots of affordable twinkling lights!
