Is it your tradition to deck the entire house with brightly lit, coloured displays or you like to keep things a little more low-key with simple rope lights strung along the roof, veranda, or fence; the right lighting is essential to creating a festive home over Christmas. Thankfully there’s now a great selection of energy-efficient lights and additions to save power and money while keeping the Christmas spirit alive!
1. LED GARDEN SOLAR LIGHTS
This Christmas, think about making the switch to low energy LED solar lights. Not only are these lights wonderfully festive and available in a range of designs and colours, but they are also solar-powered – meaning you don’t have to pay a cent to keep them running.
Solar-powered Christmas lights are cleaner alternative and an easy way to decorate the house and garden. No more replacing bulbs or finding the correct power socket, just put them out in the garden or on the roof and let the sunshine do its work!
You can easily transform your home into a Christmas wonderland by lining multi-coloured garden solar lights along your driveway or as a border around your garden. If you prefer the traditional look of the small twinkling fairy lights, you can find solar-powered lights to string along your roof or window, lasting from dusk till dawn.
2. ROPE LIGHTS
Rope lighting is a popular source of decoration over the Christmas period. Rope lights are long solid tubes of clear, bendable plastic containing many small light bulbs and are a popular way to decorate a roof or outdoor deck, or even spiralled around a tree. They are an energy-efficient way to light your home since they require far less energy than traditional string lights and generate less heat.
LED rope lights come in a range of colours, and lengths are available from anywhere between three to 250 feet. This makes them very popular for lighting larger areas, and because of the low-fire risk, can be safely used on timber surfaces or around holiday sculptures. LED rope lights consume approximately 1 watt per foot of lighting and have roughly four times the lifespan of their festive light counterparts, you can find Rope lighting at the likes of Bunnings.
3. FIBRE OPTIC TREE
Christmas is synonymous with a fully-lit Christmas tree to mark the occasion. Instead of wrestling with a box of tangled lights this season, think about investing in a fibre optic Christmas tree.
These trees are able to save up to ten times as much energy as traditional trees with incandescent lights but at a fraction of the cost. Opting for an LED pre-lit Christmas tree will save you on your power usage and is an easier alternative to decorating a full tree with string lights.
There are generally two types of fibre optic trees; one that is fully covered in lights, and the other as an artificial tree with dotted fibre optics in its limbs. These trees can be plugged straight into your wall and offer brilliant multi-coloured lights eliminating the hassle of tangled lights or blown-out bulbs. These types of trees are perfect for apartments or compact rooms and can be easily stored away once Christmas comes to an end.
4. ENERGY SAVING TIMER
Another great way of saving energy and reducing your monthly power bill over Christmas is by using an energy saving timer. Many of us turn our decorative lights on as soon as it gets dark, and over Christmas we tend to be busy, going out, visiting friends & family; we often forget the lights we left on are costing power.
It’s generally a good rule of thumb to turn off your Christmas lights as soon as you go to bed. A lot of us keep them running all night, or for those of us who are night owls, our Christmas lights can be dazzling long after the rest of the neighbourhood have gone to bed.
To avoid unnecessary power expenditure, an energy saving timer can be used to set which hours your lights operate. You can set a time for the power to automatically turn off, which is great for those of us who are too busy or who forget to switch off ourselves.
Most timers can be automatically set for 4, 6, 9, or 12 hours. Not only does it save energy and reduce the power bill, but it’s also a safe way to reduce the rest of a fire breaking out while the house is asleep.
A SAFER, MORE AFFORDABLE CHRISTMAS
Decorative lights are a great way to show off your festive spirit and bring joy to friends, family, and strangers alike! However, the cost of running lights can hike up the power bill. Choose energy-efficient Christmas lights to lower your power bill this season and make a cleaner impact.Remember, DIY electrical work is never safe. Always seek the services of professional domestic electrician to keep your household safe this Christmas.