Fairy lights and other lights can be found on almost every Christmas tree at Christmas time. However, the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center advises against certain tree lighting. This can be up to 300 times more expensive than electricity. FOCUS online tells you what to look out for.
Popular Christmas tree decorations today include not only the well-tried baubles and the pointed star, but also a wide variety of tree lights. The most common are probably traditional candles and electric lights, such as the popular fairy lights.
However, the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center is now warning against tree lighting. Although visually most similar to real candles and contributing to a more authentic Christmas atmosphere without the risk of fire, battery-powered LED tree candles can cost up to 300 times more energy.
The LED candles are usually offered wirelessly. They can therefore be freely distributed on the tree and often switched on and off with a remote control. However, the individual candles are battery-operated – and you often need several batteries per candle during the Christmas season.
“Battery power is 300 times more expensive than electricity from the socket,” according to the consumer center. Therefore, lighting the tree with battery-operated LED candles for three weeks can cost around 25 euros with a usage time of eight hours a day. In addition, the batteries cause unnecessary hazardous waste.
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Fairy lights with LED lamps consume only a fraction of the electricity compared to incandescent lamps or halogen lamps and last significantly longer, according to the calculation of the consumer protection center.
Switching to LED light chains is worthwhile, above all because new goods rely almost exclusively on efficient LED technology.
A classic and electrically operated LED light chain causes electricity costs of around 40 cents in four weeks, while a light chain with incandescent lamps or halogen lamps costs around 4 euros in the same time.
These calculations are based on both chains having 24 lights and lighting for a total of 8 hours over a total of 28 days (224 hours total).
Consumers should pay attention to the wattage when purchasing. The LED light chain for the socket has a power consumption of five watts, while the incandescent light chain requires around 50 watts.
TÜV Süd advises consumers who want to decorate cheaply and sustainably in the long term to use battery-powered LED fairy lights instead, for example.
The LED lamps generally consume significantly less electricity than incandescent lamps. In addition, the batteries can be charged up to 1,000 times and thus last between five and ten years.
Also read: Cleverly save electricity costs – with a free switching service – With remind me you can always switch to the cheapest energy supplier – without any stress
The original of this post “Price shock on the Christmas tree – you should avoid these fairy lights” comes from chip.de.
