SAN DIEGO — Many San Diegans have already set up their holiday lighting displays, some of them very extravagant efforts.
CBS 8 is Working for You to find out how the extra lighting will impact your SDG&E bill.
“Everyone comes together, the people that walk through are just, ‘Thank you,’ and ‘It’s gorgeous, I’m bringing my grandchildren,’ so it really means a lot that people enjoy it and people enjoy putting things together just to bring smiles to people’s faces,” said Donna Park, homeowner on Lana Court for 46 years.
Her late husband started a holiday tradition decades ago by asking neighbors to each put up one strand of lights.
“Now we have evolved into all of this, from one strand in 1977 to this,” said Park.
CBS 8 asked Park and her neighbors how much extra these lighting displays cost to run?
“I have solar so that helps me a lot, but before solar, yeah, you’d figure you’d have at least a $200-dollar extra bill,” said Park.
“About how much would you say it raises your bill?,” asked CBS 8’s Brian White to another neighbor. “I don’t know, maybe $100 or $200 a year or something,” said Erwin Johnson.
Peak hours
One thing that factors in for higher costs is the time of day all these lights are running, mostly during SDG&E’s peak hours between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
“It gets dark at 4:30 p.m. now, and most people leave their lights on until 9:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m. and so they’re caught right in that most expensive electrical service that you can possibly buy,” said Nina Babiarz, Director of Development for the nonprofit Public Watchdog.
Babiarz told CBS 8 the old incandescent lights use 8-10 times the power of an LED.
“A lot of people get their old Christmas lights out year after year, but this is the year to get them out and throw them out,” said Babiarz. “The reason being is investing in LED will help you cut the expense of the lighting down.”
Park and most of her neighbors have taken that advice, switching to more cost-effective lights over the years.
“LED is the way to go when you’re doing a lot of lights, it does help quite a bit with the electric,” said Park.
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