LED Christmas lights - calculated power consumption

[Number_35]

I've never been able to find out the power consumption of our Christmas lights, so I finally went out on this mild day with a ladder and a clip-on ammeter, and measured the current draw.

Our modest display comprises six strings of multi-coloured LED icicle lights.

I used a timer for years, but found that a short outage required a reset. Much easier to leave the lights on full-time. And we're down to only eight hours of daylight anyway.

So, I was curious as to how much this was costing. I turn them on the evening of the 1st Sunday in Advent, and let them run through the 12 days of Christmas, so into the first week of January. Call it six weeks in all.

The current draw was 0.13 A, so the power consumption is approximately 16 W. Sixteen W x 24 hours = (approximately) 400 W-hrs = 0.4 kW-hr

At $0.10 per kW-hr here, that's $0.04 per day = $0.28 per week = about $1.70 over the six weeks I run the lights.

Better go back to the timer!

 

[barryh]

I've been putting an ammeter on the Christmas lights too but then in the UK we are paying $0.41 per kWh

 

[Number_35]

I've been putting an ammeter on the Christmas lights too but then in the UK we are paying $0.41 per kWh

Wow, that's expensive! Is that typical, or has the cost jumped in the past few months due to the war in Ukraine?

I presume you've translated to US$. Bear in mind I'm paying in C$, so c. US$0.075.

I thought you had a fair bit of nuclear generation in the UK, which should be cost-effective.

 

[KGMtech]

Glad you did the calculations, it's good to know (with data) for people in NA these LED light strings are very inexpensive to use.

 

[Number_35]

Glad you did the calculations, it's good to know (with data) for people in NA these LED light strings are very inexpensive to use.

Thanks, it only took me about 10 years to get around to it.

 

[barryh]

Wow, that's expensive! Is that typical, or has the cost jumped in the past few months due to the war in Ukraine?

I presume you've translated to US$. Bear in mind I'm paying in C$, so c. US$0.075.

I thought you had a fair bit of nuclear generation in the UK, which should be cost-effective.

My apologies, yes I did use US dollars without checking your location.

In Canadian dollars we are paying $0.56 per KWh and that rate is subsidised by the government but only over the winter. The real market price is $0.86. It's more than tripled in the last year and yes the reason is Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Every country in Europe is paying a very high price for energy for the same reason. The huge increase in the price for natural gas is driving electricity prices. We didn't import Russian gas into the UK but most other European countries did, particularly Germany. In hindsight it was very foolish of Germany to put trust in Russia and allow themselves to become so dependent on Russian supplied gas. Regardless of how independent we might be on our own generation capacity, the whole of Europe is still interlinked both in terms of energy infrastructure pipes and cables and in the energy market which dictates the prices.

It will settle down eventually but there is no expectation that prices will ever fall to what they were before the war because we won't be buying any gas or oil from Russia for a very long time. It's a small price to pay for the sanctions imposed on Russia. I hope it reduces their economy to a 3rd world state and I'm strongly determined to never knowingly consume anything that comes from Russia for as long as I live. I won't forgive Putin and I won't forget.

 

[dlundblad]

I figured a plug in photocell or timer would be way more expensive than simply keeping them on all day so here I am.

I could do it the old fashion way, but you know..

 

[Hall]

The real market price is $0.86. It's more than tripled in the last year and yes the reason is Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

My aunts/uncles, cousins, etc are in the UK and my Mom (she's in the US) said her sisters, etc have mentioned things have gotten expensive but I never imagined that much !! We were paying close to $0.05 kW/hr earlier this year which doubled and there was a lot of complaining about it going to $0.10 kW/hr. I signed up with an alternate supplier and got locked in around $0.08. We in the US need to get our priorities straight when we complain about certain things.