UK homeowners celebrating the festive season are expected to spend £1.5 billion on electricity during December with £66 million being used on Christmas Day alone, some 11 per cent higher than the average monthly cost during the rest of the year.
A new study by ElectricalDirect, has discovered that the electrical consumption of Christmas lights, cooking a full Christmas dinner and watching Christmas TV specials, plus the usual household running costs, adds up to a whopping 402,144,104 Kwh (or 402 Gwh) of electricity on December 25th.
The amount of electricity Brits use on Christmas Day is enough to light the Eiffel Tower for 50 years, the Sydney Opera House for 25 years, Times Square in New York for seven years or power the Blackpool Illuminations for a lengthy 406 years.
To put that into perspective, one of the most popular electric car models, Tesla Model S 85D, uses on average 0.34Kwh per mile, which means the UK’s Christmas Day electrical consumption would power a Tesla for 1.2 billion miles of driving, enough to drive you around the equator 47,499 times.
Breakdown of UK household electricity consumption on Christmas Day (minus usual running costs)
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Christmas Lights - £4,416,075
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Christmas Dinner - £20,582,615
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TV Specials - £1,404,266.67
The number of viewers expected for the usual Christmas Day specials means that the nation will be spending approximately £1.4million in electricity watching TV on December 25th.
The most energy-consuming show of the day is predicted to be Call the Midwife: Christmas Special, costing £261k in electricity to watch with its predicted 8.7 million strong audience and 90 minute running time.
The Queen’s speech costs £26,166.67 for just 10 minutes, meaning each minute the Queen speaks costs £2,616 in electricity.
Dominick Sandford, Director at ElectricalDirect said: “ Coronavirus has meant more people are spending Christmas in their own homes. The restrictions will put a stop to big family gatherings, meaning the electricity usage for the day may even exceed these figures due to more houses being in use for Christmas.
“To cut down future Christmas electricity bills Brits should ensure they switch to LED Christmas lights. This might be the most effective way to curb the Christmas usage, as they use 90% less energy than traditional illuminations.”
You can view the full Christmas report on the EectricDirect website here.
