Martin Lewis reveals how much Christmas lights cost to run as households fear soaring energy bills
MARTIN Lewis has revealed how much it costs to run Christmas lights – and it’ll come as a relief to many households.
During Good Morning Britain today, Martin’s co-presenter Susanna Reid raised viewer concerns over Christmas lights.
It comes as energy bills rose to £2,500 in October – up from £1,971 – under the government’s energy price guarantee.
The average household’s bill is also set to rise to £3,000 from April 2023 for 12 months.
But when it comes to Christmas lights, Martin said he had “a little bit of good news” for households using LED lights.
He said on the show: “As long as you’ve got the LEDs and not the incandescent lights – the incandescent lights are expensive.
“If you’ve got LED lights – a string of one hundred – which is a pretty decent amount. If you were to have them on for six hours every day over a month would cost 18 pence roughly.
“So they’re not very expensive to run.”
He noted that while 18p a month is still money for struggling households, it could be a nice and affordable way to keep Christmas going.
Meanwhile, Martin’s MoneySavingExpert newsletter found that a bigger set of lights, for example, a 32-metre string of outside lights would cost a total of £1.90 over the same period.
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And a 40-watt 100-bulb string of incandescent fairy lights would cost you about £2.45 to run for 30 days over Christmas.
LEDs are generally made of plastic and are cool to touch, while incandescent lights are typically made of glass and get hot when they’ve been left on for a while.
Last year, Uswitch found the majority of households used LED lights, which is good news for bills.
They use 320% less electricity compared to halogen and incandescent bulbs.
If you have a string of 200 LED lights, Uswitch expects these to cost just 27p if used for six hours a day for 22 days – or 0.2p per hour.
How can you reduce your energy bills at Christmas?
There are plenty of ways to get help with your energy bills this winter.
First, there’s the warm home discount scheme which is an automatic £150 discount off energy bills between October 2022 and March 2023 for millions of families on the lowest incomes.
Plus, the next tranche of the Household Support Fund is being rolled out across the UK.
What you’ll get through the fund will depend on where you live as councils decide how to issue their share of the fund.
The best thing to do is contact your local council to find out whether you might be entitled to help.
Next, there’s the cost of living payments which have already started being issued – and more were confirmed in the Autumn Statement.
Millions should be in the process of receiving the second instalment of the £650 cost of living payment.
Millions more will get help depending on their circumstances.
In addition to that, energy companies often offer grants to customers who are struggling to pay their bills.
For a list of freebies and grants you can get, you can read our guide here.