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Festively lit house in Delmenhorst: "Hobbies just cost money"
Photo: Hauke Christian Dittrich / dpa
For many people in Germany, Advent marks the beginning of the season of "Christmas houses", which are decorated with fairy lights and glowing figures that shine in the wintry darkness.
While the pandemic has put pressure on the winter wonderland mood in recent years, this time it is the extremely high electricity prices.
However, some Christmas fans do not want to attend their light show.
Just like Martina and Sven Borchart from Delmenhorst, who want to turn on 60,000 lights on the first Sunday in Advent.
For more than 20 years they have been lavishly decorating their house at Christmas time with garlands of lights, figures and pyramids.
"It's a matter close to our hearts," you told the dpa news agency.
The rising energy prices would not change that: "Hobbies cost money."
Rüdiger Browatzke on the outskirts of Upper Lusatia has a similar view.
The 67-year-old has been decorating the house and garden at Christmas for more than 20 years.
He brought the idea back to Großröhrsdorf, his place of residence, from the USA.
However, the decoration there was "loud, colourful, shrill and flashing".
He wanted to do that differently.
"I actually only have warm white light." He can't say exactly how many lights are on at his Christmas house, but only estimates: "It could well be 100,000," he told the dpa.
Electricity costs like a refrigerator
In view of such figures, one can only hope that light source lovers have opted for LED technology.
Because when the Stiftung Warentest tested light chains a few years ago, the experts' verdict was clear: the models fitted with LEDs are clearly superior to those with incandescent bulbs.
Of the 15 LED light chains tested, eight had good energy efficiency, while two of the three incandescent lamp chains showed shortcomings in terms of stability and safety.
The energy costs also proved to be very different in the test at the time.
For a light tube with light bulbs, the testers calculated electricity costs of 37 euros for an assumed usage period of six weeks, which roughly corresponds to the annual consumption of an economical refrigerator.
In view of the drastically increased electricity prices, this value is likely to be significantly higher today, which gives the more economical LEDs another advantage in addition to their longer service life.
But you shouldn't get the idea of using battery-powered fairy lights.
On the one hand, because these variants are often not particularly bright.
On the other hand, if they can shine brightly and for a long time, you need new batteries on a regular basis.
"Under certain conditions, a battery-operated LED light chain can even have higher operating costs than lighting with incandescent or halogen lamps," says product expert Florian Hockel from TÜV Süd.
Quiet times also apply to lights
If you already have battery-operated fairy lights at home, it would be cheaper and more sustainable in the long term to operate them with rechargeable batteries, advises the TÜV expert.
Although they are more expensive to buy, they can be recharged 500 to 1000 times.
Also consider that “the fact that rechargeable batteries can last between five and ten years means that in most cases this saves a significant amount of money compared to normal batteries.”
In order to keep electricity costs under control, it also makes sense to only let light chains shine at certain times, controlled by a timer.
Like turning on at nightfall and turning off at bedtime.
In any case, light counts in the sense of the law, just like car exhaust fumes, as “immissions that pollute the air”.
The statutory quiet times from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. would also apply to the outdoor Christmas lights.
mak/dpa
