Councils across Ireland may turn off Christmas lights as Government attempts to tackle energy crisis with new household guidelines

Councils may turn off Christmas lights nationwide this year - as a raft of new guidelines on how people should run their homes has been revealed.

A Government drive to tackle the energy crisis is calling on homeowners to:

• Use appliances outside the energy ‘rush hours’ of five to seven in the evening

• Turn off the lights in empty rooms

• Reduce the thermostat by a couple of degrees

• Run dishwashers and washing machines/dryers at night

• Get boilers serviced and cleaned