It's a contradiction in terms: the house should be brightly lit during Advent - but the electricity shouldn't cost that much. Especially not in this crisis year. Is the?
Imagine if we all gave up lighting with fairy lights at Christmas. Believe it or not, 19.9 billion lights remained switched off. That would save enough energy to power 205,000 homes for a year.
This is the result of a calculation by the energy supplier Lichtblick, which is based on a representative Yougov survey on the use of Christmas lights.
Impressive, isn't it? This is where this text could end, because obviously the best tip for saving energy with Christmas lights is to omit them completely.
But it's Christmas. And perhaps we want to make things nice for ourselves in this crisis year. So it's not surprising that in the said survey only 29 percent of those questioned stated that they wanted to hang up or place less festive lighting in their own homes this year - mostly to save electricity.
But only 5 percent would do without it for the first time. And 45 percent say they want to use as much lighting as they will in 2021, 4 percent want to decorate with even more lighting.
But the good thing is: we can all save some energy and still illuminate the houses and apartments. Especially when LED light chains are used. According to the Öko-Institut, these use around 80 percent less electricity than other light chains - that's neat.
Tobias Schleicher, who researches sustainable consumption at the Öko-Institut's Freiburg location, also advises switching the lights on and off in a targeted manner.
It is best to only use the lights for a few hours, when you can see them yourself and when passers-by are most likely to notice them. The lights should not be on at night. "A timer is useful for this," says Schleicher.
Despite energy-saving LED technology, one simply has to say: The fewer fairy lights that are bought and switched on, the fewer resources are used. So you can ask yourself: Wouldn't it do at least one chain less? Candles are a beautifully glowing alternative - without electricity.
The sustainability expert Schleicher: "I would definitely not make a purchase recommendation this year. If you already have an LED light chain, you can use it for a few hours in the evening - or just leave it."
