Home Alone’s Kevin would rack up ‘huge electricity bill' in today’s cost-of-living crisis

It’s a beloved Christmas classic in which a young boy pulls some devilishly fun tricks on hapless burglars, but Home Alone's Kevin McCallister’s (played by a young Macaulay Culkin) use of indoor and outdoor lighting, along with his TV usage, would have resulted in a “huge” electricity bill amid the present cost of living crisis.

If the 1990 film was set 33 years later (in 2023), then the three days in which the youngster fends off the criminals through elaborate booby traps – such as red hot doorknobs and blowtorches - would have seen him spend close to five times the daily average amount of energy consumed in his home city of Chicago ($5.20, compared to £2.02 in the UK).

If only his parents were there to stop him…

The analysis, carried out by décor brand Bobbi Beck, found that Kevin’s use of indoor lighting would have guzzled up 418kWh of electricity, not least because the house itself is almost two and a half times bigger than the average American home, resulting in an estimated 99 lights being fitted inside.

The researchers also estimated that said lights would be 100W lights, using up 0.1kW an hour and being left on for around 42 hours (based on the average eight-year-old getting about 10 hours of sleep). That comes up to 418kWh on indoor lights alone.

As for the outside lighting, 10 sets of lights would be needed to cover each 20m side of the house, adding on 54kWh to his energy usage.

And finally, Kevin’s TV usage – which includes the iconic scene in which Marv is scared away from the house with a gangster movie (featuring the catchphrase, “keep the change, ya filthy animal”) – would have come to just 4¢ (3p), even with the TV being less energy efficient by today’s standards and using up 100W of electricity.

Home Alone (1990) - Scaring Marv Scene (2/5) | Movieclipswww.youtube.com

If the fictional gangster film ran to the average film length of 2 hours and 10 minutes, then it would use up 0.217kWh.

And so, all of this would have come to an eye-watering $70.83 (£55.87) over just three days, or an unbelievable $700 (£550) if his isolation lasted the whole month. That’s because he would have used at least 472.22kWh of energy in the three-day period.

James Mellan-Matulewicz, CEO of Bobbi Beck, said: “Home Alone is arguably the best Christmas movie of all time, particularly well known for its spectacular festive interiors. But when watching the film back, the amount of electricity that Kevin uses is really shocking.

“That’s why we wanted to crunch the numbers to find out just how much money he would have cost his parents in his three days of chaos.”

Kevin's parents sure would have paid the price, then...

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