How to cut your power bill while keeping your holiday lights
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Lighting up the night might not be the wisest decision.
Why it matters: Rising energy prices during the holidays have Americans second-guessing if they should scale back on decorations.
By the numbers: It costs under $20 a month to power holiday decorations for most homes, if using LED lights, said Kristina Zagame, senior researcher of home electrification at Boston-based EnergySage.
- She said LED lights cut energy use by about 70% compared to incandescent bulbs.
- Electricity bills can jump well over $100 a month if homes use incandescent lights and/or larger displays like inflatables, she said.
What they're saying: "Shutting lights off overnight matters much more if you're using incandescent bulbs or inflatables, which use far more energy," Zagame said.
Between the lines: Location also has an impact on holiday electricity bills.
- "Running the same holiday light display in Philadelphia or across Pennsylvania generally costs more than in low-cost states like Texas, but less than in high-cost markets like New England or California," Zagame said.
- In Pennsylvania, average household electricity bills were about $168 last December, according to a recent study from Payless Power.
- Connecticut had the highest December 2024 electricity bills ($228) and New Mexico had the lowest ($88).
Pro tips: Switch to LED lights, use a timer to automatically turn lights off late at night and during the day, and ditch the inflatables to save money, Pittsburgh-based utility company Duquesne Light suggests.
State of play: 17% of Americans said they plan to reduce the number of decorations due to the higher energy cost, and 8% plan to skip them altogether due to costs, according to a Payless Power survey of 1,000 Americans.
- Only 14% of respondents said they leave their holiday lights on overnight each night.
The bottom line: If you use LED lights, you can leave the lights on all night with little guilt. But if you have older incandescent displays and go all out with inflatables, turn them off at night to save significant cash.
- And if you have the ability, switching to solar power allows you to enjoy it all without a second thought, said Zagame.