Energy saving tips: Reducing Carbon Footprint during the holiday season

Christmas is a wonderful time of year when families come together to exchange gifts, decorate their homes and feast on mince pies and turkey. While time with loved ones is precious, there are still ways to minimize the cost of celebrating Christmas, both to your wallet and to the environment. Here are some ways to reduce your carbon footprint, lower electricity bills, and save energy during this holiday season.

1. Use LED Christmas Lights

LED Christmas lights consume 90% less electricity compared to regular Christmas lights and regular incandescent bulbs. As an added bonus, they cost only about $10 for a strand of lights.

2. Fiber Optic Decorations

The best way to utilize energy efficient decorations is through fiber optic decorations and trees. These trees have a single light at the base to light up the entire tree along with the decorations.

3. Timing Christmas Lights

Do not turn on the Christmas lights during the daytime. It is a waste of energy and electricity and no one can really enjoy looking at the lights during the day. Use a timer to automatically switch on lights when it gets dark and switch them off when there is plenty of natural light.

4. Tree On, Lights Off

When the tree is lit, there's no need to have other lights on. Not only will you save energy from turning off unnecessary lights, but you will also enhance the festive atmosphere.

5. Decorate with Candles

Candles are another beautiful way to decorate a room. You can use scented candles to add to the sensory pleasure.

6. Lower the Thermostat

More people in your house means more body warmth. With guests coming over, you can safely lower the thermostat setting without noticing a difference.

7. Buy Energy-free Gifts

A survey from energyquest.ca.gov reveals that almost 40% of all batteries are bought during the Christmas season. You can choose to buy gifts that don't require batteries or are energy efficient. If you must use batteries make sure that you buy rechargeable batteries.