With the cost of living crisis among us, many people still wish to celebrate the holidays with their usual decorations, but are unsure how this might affect their energy consumption.
There are some simple changes you can make to help with this.
- Switch to LED lights (uses up to 90% less electricity than incandescent bulbs).
- Make use of solar powered light (especially useful for garden displays, but can also be used in windows).
- Make us of non-light displays (such as door wreaths and tinsel).
- Select lights with more spacing (light strings with more spacing can help, less bulbs means less energy, you can also space out your decorations in a similar fashion as they do not all need to be together to look good).
- Make use of a timer (this will ensure that your lights are on when you want them to and turn off in the evening when you go to bed).
- Connect your lights to your smart devices (similar to being on a timer, you can also control your lights when away from home).
LED lights
Switching it LED lights has a much greater benefit, they can be up to 90% more efficient that traditional incandescent bulbs, have a much longer life expectancy, they give off less heat, in fact switching all your homes bulbs to LED can save around £25 each year.
Solar powered lights
These are great options for all year round, not just for the holiday season, they can illuminate your garden or driveway at night whilst collecting energy from the sun during the day. Even during the winter months when we have shorter and often overcast days they are still incredibly efficient. You can also make use of solar powered lights for window displays.
Spacing
Keeping light displays apart can help you make full use of the lights you have, you can also use extension cables to get the lights to where you need them as often the light strings may start closer to the wall than you may want. When selecting new lights you can look at those that have greater spacing on the light string which can help you manage their positioning.
Non-light displays
Making use of non-light displays is an excellent way to celebrate the holidays, whilst also being mindful of the cost of energy. Options can include door wreaths, tinsel, ornaments and even making use of those Christmas cards you’ve received.
Timers
These are simple to set up and great for keeping your lights synchronised, they can turn on and off when you want, helping you save energy and many Christmas lights often come with timers built in. Stand alone timers can also be really useful outside of the holiday season as you can leave a couple of lights on timer to create the impression that you are home when you are away.
Smart lights
We have already covered the benefits of a smart home and having smart decorations has many of the same benefits, you can get a smart plug to covert any existing lights into smart ones and they have will have all the benefits of a manual timer but with the addition of remote control from your smart phone.
