The energy crisis is causing electricity costs to rise.
In many places there are calls to save – even with the Christmas lights.
The anticipation of the Advent season with illuminated streets and houses and deliciously fragrant food at Christmas markets is enormous every year.
All the more so after Christmas markets were canceled almost everywhere during the corona pandemic.
But now the enthusiasm has been dampened: In view of the current energy crisis, the German Environmental Aid is demanding that cities and private households should do without Christmas lights.
"This winter it should be a matter of course that both the Christmas lights in cities and the houses and apartments will be dispensed with," said Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch of the editorial network Germany (RND).
"In view of the war in Ukraine, the energy shortage, but also for reasons of climate protection, we should pause for a moment."
This is how much electricity the Christmas lights in German private households use
According to the Heidelberg Institute for Energy Services (IFED), an average household in Germany uses around two fairy lights and a ten-metre-long light hose during the Christmas season.
This ensures a power consumption of about 190 kilowatt hours, which is about half as much power as is otherwise consumed for the rest of the year.
All in all, this results in around 500 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
With this amount, 140,000 households could be supplied with electricity for a whole year.
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The annual Christmas lighting causes high electricity consumption for all households.
© Rene Traut/Imago
How much electricity your personal Christmas lights consume depends on the power of the light chain in watts and the operating time.
And of course also on how many fairy lights you have in operation in total.
A classic chain of lights of about five meters usually has an output of about 50 watts.
LED light chains, which only consume around 6 watts, are more energy-efficient.
How much does the electricity for the Christmas lights cost?
The electricity consumption of a classic light chain with an output of 50 watts costs you around 1.5 cents per hour, according to the energy supplier LogoEnergie.
So if you turn on your lights for 6 hours a day throughout December, you pay around 2.80 euros.
That doesn't sound like much, but it usually doesn't stop with a chain of lights.
With an LED light chain, on the other hand, you save almost 90 percent of the costs - so you only pay 0.33 euros under the same general conditions.
How can you save electricity with Christmas lights?
An Advent season without Christmas lights is unthinkable for many, despite the energy crisis.
So if you bring the fairy lights out of the basement again this year, you can still save something on electricity consumption.
One option that has already been mentioned is the use of LED light chains.
These were frowned upon for a long time because the light was perceived as too bright and cold.
In the meantime, however, they are also available in colors such as "warm white", which imitate the light of the "old" fairy lights very well.
Other ways to save electricity include:
Timers
: The Christmas decorations only light up for a certain number of hours a day and then switch off automatically.
Solar-powered fairy lights
: The integrated batteries charge during the day and therefore, at best, do not require additional electricity.
List of rubrics: © Rene Traut/Imago
