How much will my energy bill go up if I keep my Christmas lights on for 5 hours a day for 3 weeks?

Question

I have about 15 strings of xmas lights of various lengths and sizes that I want to hang and light, but I'm worried that my energy bill will go through the roof...

Answer 1

You would figure it per bulb, so you'll have to go thru and check how many bulbs are on the strings that you have. I did a news story recently and the research said it was about $4.92 for 5 hours a day over 45 days for 300 mini bulbs, but $76.00 for 300 old fashioned big bulbs. Only 47 cents of electricity for 300 of the new LED bulbs!

So for instance, if you have 15 strings of 100 mini bulbs, I would estimate maybe $12.50 for the 3 weeks, if my math is right? Kinda makes you wonder though, I'm watching HGTV's show right now on crazy Christmas houses, and these people are paying $600.00 - $800.00 a month??That is a LOT of lights!

Answer 2

Look on the box that the lights came in, and look for the wattage of the lights. It may give it per bulb or it may give it per string. A normal household light uses about 60 Watts. I really am not sure how much christmas lights would use. Perhaps around 4W per bulb or less.

Anyway, to work out how much it costs, you need to know how much a kilowatt hour costs for you. In ireland, it is around 13cents per kilowatt hour. That means, if you are using 1000 watts for 1 hour, it costs 13c.

So, if the total amount of watts you are using on your trees comes to, say, 400 watts. That means you are using up:

1000W = 13c / hour
400W = (13*400/1000) = 5.2 c/hour

So, for every hour you are running the lights, it costs 5.2c. So for 5 hours a day, its 5.2 * 5 = 26cent per day.

Now, the wattage of your lights may be more/less than 400W, and your kilowatt hour price may be different aswell. So it is really hard to say. But ill bet that for a standard christmas tree with an average amount of lights, it wont put it up that much.

As a side note, 15 strings is quite a lot. Be careful not to overload the circutry of your house. It can cause a short and create a spark, and set your tree on fire. Be VERY careful. And merry christmas.

Answer 3

It also depends on the size of the light bulbs and the brand. If you are so worried about your bill, you can compensate by using fewer other lights. Your hair dryer and clothes dryer use a ton of electricity. Try turning the heat setting down on both of those. Only turn on other lights if you have too. The dryer option on your dishwasher uses quite a bit too. Try letting your dishes dry by themselves. There are other ways to reduce your bill. Be creative!

Answer 4

find out the wattage rating of your christmas lights, and divide by 1000 to get kilowatts.

then figure out how many hours you are going to leave your lights on. you said 3 weeks 5 hours a day ... 21 days * 5 hours ...
about 100 hours ... you are probably talking not much money.


then multiple the numbers to get kilowatt-hours.

go to your energy bill and figure out what they charge you per
kilowatt hour of electricity, and then multiply that too ... you
will get your cost.