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BC Hydro is trying to kill the Christmas spirit

BC Hydro likely doesn’t want to ruin Christmas, but it sure is doing its best to sound like the Grinch.
Christmas lights

BC Hydro likely doesn’t want to ruin Christmas, but it sure is doing its best to sound like the Grinch.

The utility decided it wasn’t enough to be hated for ginormous rate increases year after year after year, it needed to try and throw a wet blanket over people’s attempts to light up their homes.

For example is this Canadian Press story:

“BC Hydro is warning homeowners who string up elaborate holiday lighting displays that those decorations can significantly boost power costs. A new report from the Crown utility says the outdoor lighting load plummeted about 40 per cent by 2011 as LED lights replaced incandescent bulbs, but a trend toward larger displays has increased the load by 15 per cent since then. Popular inflatable holiday decorations are among the worst offenders because Hydro says they are typically run day and night. The BC Hydro report finds nearly 60 per cent of households put up holiday lighting and one in five of those households uses at least eight strands of lights. Hydro also estimates that about one-third of lights still in use are energy-gobbling incandescents, and says if the infamous holiday display in the film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation were incandescent, it would cost $4,700 to light. The report says that bill would drop to about $50, if the lights were LED and it urges Hydro customers to switch to the energy efficient version.”

Yeah, sure, it costs more to set up these lights displays – we get it.

Is someone from BC Hydro heading down to Stanley Park to yell at the people raising money through the Bright Nighs Christmas Train event? How about the amazing lights display at St. Paul's Hospital.

Bright in Burnaby kicks off Saturday night at the Village Museum - perhaps someone from BC Hydro can go complain to them about how much those lights are costing.

Thanks for being such a wet blanket.

Was it really necessary for BC Hydro to be a scold when people get into the Christmas spirit? Enough already. It’s bad enough we have to watch those annoying BC Hydro commercials with the guy spending time in people’s homes showing them how to turn off light switches.

I don’t need them killing the Christmas spirit for me. I love me some giant lights displays.