Families all across the country are likely digging into the back of their attics to pull out the annual Christmas decorations.
However, many may also be concerned about whether or not they actually afford to switch the lights on this year amid rising energy bills and a cost of living crisis. It was announced last week by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that energy bills will skyrocket by an additional £500 - this will bring the average annual bill to £3,000 form April.
It means that Brits are being pressured to find even more ways to cut down their electricity usage in any way possible. This is especially important for Christmas where the average electricity use is higher than the rest of the year, the Mirror reports.
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Despite this, many will be pleased to find out that running fairy lights on a Christmas tree is not as expensive as they may initially think. Even then, you can save more money by using energy efficied LED bulbs.
Uswitch noted that 200 LED fairy lights would cost far less than a penny to run for an hour, bringing it at around 0.2 per hour. Because of this, it will only cost 1.2p to keep fairy lights on for six hours.
Sarah Broomfield, energy expert at Uswitch.com, said: “The cost of heating the home will be most households’ biggest energy bill worry this Christmas. But when it comes to Christmas lights, the good news is that they do not cost too much to run if they use energy efficient LED bulbs.
“Last year only one in ten households were still lighting their trees and festive displays with inefficient halogen and incandescent bulbs, which burn 320% more electricity than their LED equivalents. A household with a string of 200 LED fairy lights would expect to increase their bills by just 27p if used for six hours a day for 22 days over the whole festive period based on the current price cap.”
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