One in ten Brits won’t be decking the halls at all this Christmas to save on energy costs

Higher energy costs won’t just be affecting your wallet this winter it seems, as new research from GoCompare Energy has found that 12% of British households won’t be putting up any Christmas lights this year to save on energy.

While 41% said they will be putting up the same number of lights as previous years, and aren’t concerned about the energy bills, nearly a quarter of those surveyed (23%) said that they would be putting up fewer lights, and a further 6% were going to invest in more sustainable Christmas lights to save on energy.

Gareth Kloet, of GoCompare Energy, said of the findings: “I’m not surprised that this year people are rethinking how many Christmas lights they put up on their homes. Not only because of the energy costs, but also because of the environmental implications, which have been further highlighted following the recent COP26 conference in Glasgow. It is clear that cost and climate change are having an effect on the way people behave when it comes to energy consumption.

“Those who are investing in more sustainable lights (6%) are evidently looking to future Christmases and realising that they need a more sustainable way to deck the halls.”

Gareth added: “There are some ways in which you can reduce the amount of energy used by your Christmas lights, which includes simple steps like considering using flashing lights, as they consume less energy due to them being off as often as they are on.

“You could also reduce the wattage of the bulbs you use for your Christmas lights - I have actually done this myself. I reduced the wattage in the bulbs for my 40 outdoor Christmas lights from 40W to 2W, which has substantially reduced the energy I use. The 40W bulbs were using around 1.6kWh an hour of energy and they were on for 14 hours a day – so I was using around 22.4KWH of energy a day. Which is the equivalent to having a 50inch LED television, which uses 0.016kWh per hour, on for 1,400 hours or 58 full days**. So, you can see how much energy these bulbs are using and how easy it is to make a saving purely by swapping the bulbs.”

For some other tips on how to save energy, visit this handy guide here: https://www.gocompare.com/gas-and-electricity/guide/energy-saving-tips/

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For further information please contact:

Lynsey Walden on lynsey.walden@gocompare.com,  or Kath Chadwick on Kathryn.chadwick@gocompare.com.

Notes to editors

^*1On 5-9^th November an online survey of 2,009 randomly selected Great British adults was executed by Maru/Blue. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.1%. The results have been weighted by age, gender, region and social grade to match the population, according to Census data. This is to ensure the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Great Britain. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

**https://electricityplans.com/kwh-kilowatt-hour-can-power/ Average 50inch LED television uses around 0.016kWh of energy, 0.016 X 1,400 hours = 22.4kWh. 1400hours/24 = 58.3 days.