Jane Powerson the cost of lighting up
Christmas lights, both interior and exterior, are expected to add an extra 200 million watts' load to the national grid this year. To put that in context: an average power station in Ireland generates between 300 and 400 million watts. So while we're indulging our ever-increasing fascination for twinkly illuminations, we're using over half the output of an average power station. Our consumption of electricity for festive sparkling and glowing has gone up by 100 per cent in the past five years, whereas our overall demand for electrical power has expanded at a quarter of that rate during the same period.
If you're interested in monitoring the nation's usage, log on to Eirgrid's website (www.eirgrid.com), click on "system operations" and then "system demand". From there, you can watch this country power-trekking through mountains and valleys of megawatts on any given day, from April 1999.
You'll see that we use most electricity at this time of the year: during the second and third weeks in December. Much of this is business- and industry-related, but at present, about 4 per cent at peak times is channelled into festive illuminations.
One way to cut our Christmas lighting bill (both to ourselves and to the environment) is to switch to LED (light emitting diode) lights. According to the government's Power of One energy conservation campaign, LED lights use up to 90 per cent less energy, and last up to seven times longer than conventional, incandescent lights.
If you're committed to incandescent lights, don't leave them on for hours on end, or in an empty room, where there is no one to bask in their seasonal glow. And I know this sounds horribly Scrooge-like, but if you can leave them off between 5pm and 7pm, you'll be doing the national grid a huge favour. If there is too much pressure on the system during these hours of heaviest demand, the ESB must fire up extra generators. These are the most expensive ones to run and - because they are powered by fossil fuel - they expel the most CO2 and other emissions.
But, to end on a positive note, the actual day of Christmas puts very little pressure on the grid. Businesses and shops are mostly closed, and many houses are empty, as families and friends gather together. Imagine how much power we'd save if we went visiting more often - after turning out the lights.