What’s the big deal about electrical energy consumption ?

Everyone in Europe as been told to save energy by executing some saving measures. When it comes to electrical energy consumption, there are some that might be more efficient than others, is this article I’ll try to put some light on it, keep reading.

When that topic of saving energy comes up in the media, I was comment it with others and ask something like:

– How much do you save when reduce the heating temperature or switch off some lights, turn off the TV and others, as recommended by some government and similar institutions?

Most of the time I get the answer: – We save a lot, and we must do it otherwise we’ll get service interruptions or some other consequences due to the so-called energy crisis in Europe.

Here is the data for energy consumption in the USA in 2020 for further reading:

World energy consumption – Transportation, Industry, Residential

What measures are in place?

I also heard on the News that some municipalities will not have the traditional public Xmas lights as one of the measurements to reduce energy consumption, and some persons follow that initiative at their homes.

For the municipality institutions that could make sense to save a bit in energy but mainly on the installation service itself, I think that at your home the service costs do not apply and only electrical energy costs if you reuse all lights and decorations from last year.

Anyone is free to do whatever you think, at your home, within the law and good sense, but if the goal is to save electrical energy comparing to other measures, let’s try to put that in numbers.

Electrical Energy consumption calculation

Imagine that you like Xmas light decoration, and you have a Xmas tree, some decorations in the balcony, some other lights powdered by rechargeable batteries, etc, how will you calculate the consumption?

Easy, follow me!

Get some price reference

Read the device power rating

Go to each power supply device and note down the electrical characteristics, we Will assume that the max rating is the one consumed, that is not far from reality for LED lights.

Xmas tree consumption

2 * 3.8 W * 10 h * 42 d = 3192Wh = 3.2kWh

• 2 – Number of light sets
• 3.8 W – Power rating
• 10 hours of daily usage (Turn on at 16:00 and switch off at 2:00 using a timer switch)
• 42 Days: Start at 25 of November until 6 of January (Kings day )

The king’s day, the most awaited day for the Spanish kids, the 6 of January. Want to know why? Source: https://www.vivernaespanha.com/reis-magos-na-espanha/

If you pay 50 cents per kWh (this way above the high-cost country from the price reference) that’s

1.6 ($/€/CHF) for the full Xmas season(42 days).

For the ones that have some additional light Christmas decorations, let’s say outdoor lights, one star and one bell, this would be 4 times more the Xmas tree in my case:

1.6 * 4 = €6.4, For the full Xmas season (12.8 kWh) (42 days).

Some measures to really save some electricity!

If you really want to save some electrical energy, here are some ideas instead of not having Xmas lights:

First – Turn off the oven 5 minutes before the food is cooked.

It still is cooked because of the energy conservation inside, if you do this practice 2 times a week during the same season:

3400 * 0.08 * 2 * 6 = 3.26 kWh

• 3400 W – Oven power rating
• 0.08 hours – 5 minutes reduction
• 2 Times per week
• 6 weeks usage (42/7)

Second – Reduce the usage of the toaster

Stop using the toaster during the week

900 * 0.25 * 5 * 6 = 6.75 kWh

• 900 W – Toaster
• 15 minutes of usage
• 5 days per week
• 6 weeks of usage

Third – Reduce the usage of the Tumble (clothes drying machine)

Dry the clothes in the air instead of machine Tumbler once per week

2500 * 1.5 * 1 * 6 = 22.5 kWh

• 2500 W power rating
• 1 hour and 30 minutes of usage
• 1 Day per week
• 6 Weeks of usage

As you see, there are some saving opportunities without compromise to the Xmas spirit. The savings will be much bigger if you practice it the full year and next year you can have the full house decorated with Xmas LED lights with virtual no additional cost 😉

You might have a different usage and different power ratting for your domestic electric appliances, but to increase the potential savings, find the ones that you use more and consumes more and try some adjustments. Here is a page that gives some hints about it.

Conclusion

It is absolutely ridiculous to say that not using Christmas lights will help on the electrical bill or will create big energy savings. Maybe governments have some other goals that I’m not aware, because if it’s just about energy consumption the quick wins are not in the residential consumers and even less on seasonal decoration led lightning!

Keep the lights, keep the Xmas spirit and find saving measures in a daily basis with or without crisis.

Do you have more ideas? Please share it in the comments! Together we can mitigate the electrical energy abnormal cost increasing!