Cost of living crisis - Christmas lights ???

[diian]

Will there be any up this year?

Martin Lewis is going on about blackouts and using less energy between 4-10pm. Will there be fewer nodding reindeers and houses lit up this Christmas?

34p to have an oven on for an hour. The Christmas turkey will cost about £1 to cook... phew! Or shall we just go round to MILs!?

I have some solar powered lights outside. They aren't exactly lighting up the neighbourhood- but they don't cost anything to run.

Sadly? Really? Bag humbug.

Mine are going up. I couldn’t give a damn. No one is coming for my lights! 🎄 I have LED’s and solar.

We usually have strings of small warm white lights around the porch and across downstairs window ledges plus a few twined around a tree. All very tasteful (or so we convince ourselves)
The house is a large Victorian one in a fairly prominent position, so our festive lights were quite noticeable.
DH is adamant that we will not ‘light up’ the front this year. With many people worrying about their fuel bills, he feels it would be very insensitive to flaunt our ability to pay for inessential electricity.
Though disappointed, I think he is right. I might run to a couple of Poundland battery light chains draped round the little trees on the front step, but will stop at that.

My LEDs cost pennies. But we won't put them on for ages, just a couple of hours of an evening.

The kids have glow in the dark craft beads... might hang a load of their creations in the trees out front

I have the Twinkly WiFi enabled Christmas lights. These are on a schedule and are probably on 3 hours a day, so no, I won’t be changing my Christmas lights habits.

Will have my lights up as usual. Lights in the tree inside and battery run lit wreath and garlands on the wall outside. Up first weekend of December.

Which big corporations have got us into this energy crisis @Hiphopopotamus ?

I'll be lighting up my neighbourhood as usual - it doesn't cost much to run in the grand scheme of my personal bills, so I'll still do it.

During covid we had people walking past just to see our lights, last year people stopping as I was doing them outside to tell me how much they love them. I won't stop! I love it when I'm sat inside and can hear children outside getting excited at the lights, it makes me happy.

Of course there will be

The majority won’t be struggling this Christmas, many on here seem to forget that

We probably won’t this year.

I was thinking about all the winter light walks at NT properties and similar not necessarily from a cost perspective but we might be subjected to blackouts yet people will be paying to see illuminated attractions at different times. It’s odd, aside from costs everyone needs to consume less energy renewable or not it all has costs including renewables.

They'll be Diwali lights

Most xmas lights are led so shouldn’t be that expensive. We will still be putting ours up!

Ours are going up might even grab some more. I'm honestly surprised considering the weather but with solar panels we've just had our October bill for £42 (mainly gas + standing charger) so it's 100% free with the grant.

They are led and cost so little but they spread so much joy!

I am surprised how many people don't know about Diwali.
It's in life in the uk test 😂 Should be general knowledge

So long as they are LED lights they cost pennies to run. And - if you get some rechargeable ones they can be on even in an electricity cut.

I have some like that currently but they are only motion sensor ones, which will help for toilet visits but not for sitting. I will be able to read my kindle though 😊😊

Oh, I'd never considered not putting my lights on. We don't have many though, just round the front door.

It isn’t about the cost of running them it’s about the fact that we may well be at the point of energy rationing by then, leaving to blackouts. If we have limited electricity then we should be cutting back everywhere and not running pointless things like Christmas lights

Lights bring joy and cheer. I will be putting mine up.

Ours are LEDs which use hardly any energy. Also on batteries. No more expensive that before and probably less than a lot of people spend on new decorations.

Exactly. Mine will be up. Makes Christmas feel more cheery with some nice lights. If there are power cuts then I guess they’ll be off at those times but they’ll be on at others unless we are told not to put them up!

We'll put ours out for sure. I can't think of anything more dismal than a winter without bright colourful lights except for the ghastly blue ones to cheer things up. LEDs take such a tiny amount of power, it won't be noticeable to our bills. Do people think they use a lot of electricity?!

Have you completely missed the news articles etc about this?!

When supply and demand are so close it could cause the grid to shut, so to prevent that, the gird puts in place controlled black outs ie times/days when they turn the electricity off to all but essential users in a particular area.

You can find your area here www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/national/uk-today/23075051.blackouts-find-power-block/

The dates they're looking at are in January when it's typically colder. I am sure they will do everything they can to facilitate Christmas without interruption including stocking up on LNG and receiving deliveries of more from Saudi et al too.

I know they are trying to focus on business first, but def get prepared - torches, spare batteries, candles, flask for filling with hot water etc...

Kind of agree with this tbh