Use These 3 Tips To Save Money While Making Your Home Merry and Bright
It’s no secret that the holidays can be expensive. Between gifts, food, travel expenses, time off, and decorations, the costs can add up quickly. Many homeowners decide to cut back on gifts and decorations first to save a little money. This doesn’t have to be the case. There are things that every homeowner can do to cut down on costs while still keeping the holiday season festive and fun for all. Read on to discover three tips to save money for many holiday seasons to come.
Change Over To Energy-Efficient Led Lights
LED lights have been an option for holiday decorations for several years now, and their upfront costs keep dropping. They still cost a little more than those old, energy-consuming incandescent lights, but they tend to pay for themselves within one season. The fact is that LED lights are estimated to consume 80% less electricity than incandescents.
Not only that, but they also last longer and are less likely to malfunction than old-school holiday lights. Plus, they’re safer and easier to put up than incandescents. Since LED lights operate at a much lower wattage than incandescents, homeowners can connect several more strands together, reducing the need for tons of extension cords and power strips.
Get All the Baking Done at Once
Another great way for homeowners to keep their energy bills lower during the holidays is to do all the baking at once. This only takes a little bit of planning and can actually save both time and money. After all, the entire oven heats to temperature every time it’s powered up. Cooking more than one dish at a time is a great way to utilize the entire oven without turning it on and off several times. It’s essentially getting a 2 for 1 deal on electricity.
Use Specialty Timers for Decorations
Both indoor and outdoor times are an easy way to keep energy costs down during the holidays. Many modern timers allow homeowners to “set it and forget it,” making sure the lights go on and off when they should. This takes human error out of the equation and ensures that forgetting to turn the lights off is a thing of the past.
Some timers on the market also have a daylight-sensing function that turns the lights on when the sun goes down and turns them off when it comes back up. It’s easy to set the timer to turn the lights on around sundown and turn them off at bedtime or whatever time they choose.
For those with LED lights on their decorations, the cost of operating lights from dusk till dawn is negligible. But for those with incandescents, the best thing to do is set the timers to turn off shortly after bedtime to conserve energy.