Number of the week for Advent / Ten times less electricity...

12/01/2023


Source: Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft e.V.

Chains of lights are lit up in almost every household during the Advent and Christmas season. The effect this has on electricity consumption depends primarily on the lights.

Modern LED fairy lights are around ten times more efficient than fairy lights with small light bulbs, which are still stored in many cellars. Whereas a string of lights with 100 incandescent bulbs consumes around 34 watts, a string of LED lights of the same length consumes only around 3.5 watts per hour.

In the long term, this also has an impact on the electricity bill: If the fairy lights burn for eight hours every day for two months, the incandescent fairy lights consume 16.6 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity. This corresponds to costs of just under 7 euros (based on an average working electricity price of around 42 ct/kWh). In contrast, the LED fairy lights only require 1.7 kWh in the same period, for which around 70 cents have to be paid - a saving of more than six euros.

For comparison: the electricity saved could be used to make around 1000 cups of coffee, prepare 15 lunches for four people on an electric stove, iron for 7.5 hours with a steam iron or watch three hours of TV on a 55-inch LED TV on each of the evenings during this period. The reason for the electricity savings: LED lamps are significantly more efficient than incandescent lamps. While the latter only convert around five percent of the energy consumed into light and the rest is lost as heat, LEDs convert up to 99 percent of the energy into light.

But LED fairy lights also have other advantages. They have a significantly longer service life and because they hardly give off any heat, they are also suitable for children's rooms or as plant decorations.

The fairy lights have no measurable impact on overall electricity consumption during the Christmas period. Electricity consumption generally falls in December, as the industrial, retail and services sectors are shut down over the Christmas period.