One of the loveliest things about Christmas is all the sparkly, glinting Christmas lights on trees inside and out. It really gets you in a jovial and seasonal mood. But it’s not so heart-warming when you realise that an ‘extravagant light display’ could be responsible for producing 400kg of carbon dioxide, according to the Energy Saving Trust. What to do?

Well, the solution is to get your hands on some LED lights like these energy saving decorative lights from IKEA, lights that are powered by solar power or rechargeable batteries, or install an energy-saving bulb to offset the energy usage.

And here are some tips from the Co-op on how to stay eco-friendly this year:

1) Plant a rooted Christmas tree in your garden to help offset CO2 emissions
2) Turn Christmas lights off overnight or when you’re not at home
3) Turn the thermostat down by just one degrees to cut as much as 10 per cent off your heating bill
4) Don’t leave your TV, video and hi-fi on standby. Turn them off completely at the set when you’re not using them
5) When cooking Christmas lunch, keep lids on your saucepans - your sprouts will cook quicker and you’ll be saving energy too
6) Avoid keeping the oven door open when checking the turkey. It is better to remove the turkey to check it and close the oven door, saving heat in the oven and energy as well
7) We always cook too much at Christmas - ensure all spare food has cooled before putting it in the fridge as this will help save energy
8) Christmas dishes can be a nightmare but waiting until you have a full load in the dishwasher and using a low energy or economy programme will help keep costs down
9) Boil water using a kettle instead of on the hob
10) At night, draw curtains to keep heat in the room

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Energy saving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.