If you're eager to brighten your home with Christmas lights but are concerned about your energy bills, you're certainly not alone. Last festive season, 14% of households across the UK decided against putting up decorations due to fears over increasing expenses, according to GoCompare.
Nonetheless, MoneySavingExpert (MSE) has come up with a festive lighting tip that might help soften the blow. The money advice website, headed by Martin Lewis, claims that using certain types of decorations could cut running costs to just 1p for every 12 hours per 100 bulbs.
The answer, perhaps unexpectedly, lies in simply switching from traditional incandescent lights to LEDs, with the team pointing out a substantial price difference between the two options. In an online blog, experts at MSE explain: "If you've got LED lights, it costs roughly 1p for 12 hours usage per 100 bulbs.
"If you've got incandescent lights, it costs 1p every hour (so 12p every 12 hours) per 100 bulbs. So if you run a 100-bulb string of LED lights (which uses three watts of energy) for six hours a day for a month it'll cost roughly 14p."
Whilst this might appear to be a small distinction, it's actually a major factor in why incandescent lights are regarded as less efficient than LEDs. Elesi notes that incandescent bulbs use 'less than 5% of their energy' to produce visible light, with the remainder wasted as heat.
This also explains why traditional incandescent bulbs tend to be hot to the touch after prolonged use, whilst plastic LED alternatives remain considerably cooler.
Beyond this, MSE highlighted that LEDs last 'up to 50 times longer', making them a worthwhile investment for households keen to reduce their energy expenditure.
The newsletter's practical guidance has previously been mirrored by financial experts at the Afforda team, who also urged people to consider purchasing light timers. These convenient devices will automatically switch off your lights at a designated time, eliminating the need for manual intervention.
"Lots of us still use Christmas lights that are many years old, and these probably aren't LED," they said last year. "Buying new LED Christmas lights will be a relatively affordable and worthy investment, as LED lighting is much cheaper to run.
"Additionally, make sure all lights in your house have LED bulbs; if you have yet to make the jump to LED, now is a good time to start, as they will save you a lot of money going forward."
For those wanting to calculate the running costs of their festive illuminations, MSE provides a handy online calculator to help. Click here for more information.