Christmas is right around the corner, but have you ever thought about what your lights are costing you?

Most UK households will use 2 sets of LED fairy lights to brighten up their tree/trees around the house, which equates to around 25 metres of length; If you leave the lights on between 4pm-12am you can expect to pay around £0.0163 per day for the luxury, that works out at around 50p for the entire month of December.

However, the older incandescent bulbs are far more expensive. Yes they may look nice, but a string of lights with 100 bulbs will consume roughly 40 watts, which would cost you £0.1088 per day, or £3.37 per month, an increase of £2.87!

“Generally speaking you’ll see the older incandescent bulbs in the homes with an older age profile, they may not even be aware that these lights are costing them a fortune as they’ve presumably had them for quite some time. If you’re popping in to visit the Grandparents in the next few weeks it might be time to swap out the old lights for some LEDs.”

Outdoor Rope Lights
Lining the outside of your house with rope lights is a trend that has only grown in popularity over the past 10-15 years and it should be no surprise that these lights are some of the biggest energy consumers. LED rope lights usually consume around 1 watt per foot, so a 50 metre length of rope light that’s left on for 8 hours a day is going to cost you £0.4461, or £13.82 for the month of December.

Again, the incandescent bulbs are far more expensive – the same length of lighting nearly triples the price, as these bulbs would use around 3 watts per foot, working out at £1.34 per day or £41.54 for the month.

Outdoor Decorations
Outdoor rope light decorations are another common sight across the country, take this Reindeer & Sleigh decoration from the Range for example –

“These decorations can be a little bit deceptive as they are relatively inexpensive, not too big and look great in front of the house – however they utilise LED rope lights too, this one features around 5m of rope light, which means it’ll cost you £0.04 to run for 8 hours, or around £1.38 for the month”

Calculations
– Monthly Cost –

LEDS – 25 metres of fairy lights (£0.50) + 50 metre of outdoor rope light (£13.82) + 1 Outdoor Decoration (£1.38) = £15.70

INCANDESCENT BULBS – 100 bulbs @ 40 w (£3.37) + 50m of rope light, 3w per foot (£41.54) + 1 Outdoor Decoration (£4.14) = £49.05