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Archive for the 'Christmas Lights' CategoryI’ve got a wooden fence…. how do I hang Christmas lights on it? I get this question from time to time and I’m happy to report that there is a clip designed specifically for this application – and it has a zippy name… Surface Mount Clip.  Surface Mount Clips next to a Quarter for Scale Each clip is set in a little “S” and technically, you’d need to use one for each C7 or C9 bulb that you want to snap into attention along your fence or flat surface. You run the wire on each side of the bulb socket under a side of the S and a little lip catches it and holds it in place. If you have a terribly irregular surface that may affect how snugly the wire is held. The socket is positioned so that the bulb is perpendicular to the flat surface of the clip. So passers-by will see and neat and orderly row of lights all pointing right at them. (They’ll all be envious – I’m just sayin’.) I hope you are planning your Christmas light display now – don’t forget how you are going to install your lights. Merry Christmas, Shellie Gardner
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If you have an entire set of mini lights go out, more than likely, you’ve blown a fuse. This happens when you run too many mini lights sets in series. Check your mini lights specifications to see what the manufacturer recommends for maximum number of lights in series, follow those guidelines, replace your fuses and hopefully, you’ll be back in business. The other alternative problem might be an unseated bulb. So, if your fuses are fine, look for a damaged bulb base or unseated bulb. (Whatever you do, don’t take out all the bulbs and reseat them – that’s just a recipe for disaster.) Here is a quick video on where to find and how to replace the fuse in your set of mini lights. Have a Merry Christmas and don’t run too many light sets together!! Shellie Gardner
I’ve just posted an article about SPT-1 and SPT-2 spools and cords. It discusses the difference between SPT-1 and SPT-2 cords. You can find it here: What is the difference between SPT-1 and SPT-2 Christmas Light Cord Basically, the difference between these two types of wire is the thickness of the insulation. Unless otherwise designated, commonly available spools of stringer wire are 18 AWG – that means they are rated at 10 amps. For a full discussion of the differences see the article above. Best regards, Shellie Gardner This is a question that I see on a fairly regular basis. This is an interesting question and depending on the lights you are considering the answer could be yes .. or no. The answer is dependent on how the lights you are looking at are wired and connected together – whether they are in series or parallel. More often than not, people ask this question regarding string lights – mini lights. These lights are run in series and are at constant current. Since the traditional incandescent lights have a much higher resistance than LED sets, they pull alot more current – which runs through both types of sets simultaneously. As a result, you just can’t run then in series with the newer LED sets. More than likely, you’d either pop the fuse of the LED set or ruin the LED set. So part of the answer to the question is… “No”, you can’t run traditional incandescent and LED string lights in series in the same electrical run. But what about C7 or C9 bulbs? This is the second most common way folks ask about combining incandescent and LED lighting. Eighteen gauge C7 and C9 Christmas light cord is wired in parallel – so all the bulbs have constant voltage and variable current – each bulb only pulls the current that it “needs” – determined by its resistance. This is the reason you can cut them to fit and skip sockets where you want to. So, in this instance, the answer is “Yes”. In parallel wired C7 and C9 stringers, you can mix incandescent and LED bulbs to your heart’s content… beyond the electrical specifications, taste and Christmas light decorum are your biggest considerations when mixing bulb colors and styles. Happy Lighting, Shellie Gardner It’s the time of year where new lights are arriving daily so it’s fun to add new products to our lineup. Here is a video about our LED twinkle bulbs. The come in C7 or C9 and in Warm or Pure white. We suggest you use about 10 percent of these bulbs to accent your lighting display. The flash randomly – not synchronously. Shellie Gardner Hello! I was just wondering if Battery Operated Mini Lights White Wire Product#: BL-154BATCLRW is the best product to use for wreaths? Look forward to hearing from you. Jennifer Hi Jennifer, Those are almost better tailored to short term events but yes, they do work for wreaths. The only issue to consider is the time they stay lit per set of batteries and how often you’d have to switch them out and the associated expense. Rechargeable batteries don’t always have the same brightness as traditional batteries so you’d need to be careful not to assume that they would be effective replacements in battery operated lights. On the incandescent sets you mention, the batteries will last 4-7 hours per battery pack so you’d need to change the 2 C batteries out almost every day or two. If you went with a battery operated LED set with 20 bulbs spaced 6 inches apart, then you’d have to change them every 3-5 days. They take 3 AA batteries that last about 18-24 hours per set. For a smaller wreath, our microdrop lights are rated to last over 125 hours per charge. They have 18 lights that are 3 inches apart. They are really bright. If you didn’t need very many sets, those could be your best wire-less option. Frankly, if there is any way that you can run a cord, that is the absolute best option you’d have for a wreath. Hope that helps, Shellie Gardner Have you ever asked yourself: Is there a better way to hang a large, heavy ornament on my tree? I had a customer call looking for tree clips and she had such a great idea for them that I had to pass along her hot tip! Tree clips are normally used to secure Christmas lights to tree branches – especially to live trees that you don’t want to damage when you remove the lights. Or when you use LED lights and don’t want to damage the lights when you take them down. You just give them a little twist and you get a secure hold. They keep you from having to use wire ties that are hard to remove – often requiring clippers that dig into the tree and can cut light wires.  Tree Clip Well, back to my customer with the innovative solution. She was finding that her really heavy ornaments were just sliding off her Christmas tree limbs. When she saw the tree clips online, she thought that might be just the thing to solve her problem. And they were! Just a simple twist and her heavier ornaments didn’t fall off the tree – she said it was nice to not have to worry about her cat knocking the ornaments off, as well. Naturally, not all ornaments will fit over the little ball on the end of the clip but for large or heavy balls and figurines, they work great. I have some kid-made Christmas tree decorations that are heavier than your garden-variety glass balls and I love them. This solution will be a great alternative this year to twist ties. I’ve been working with these clips for 5 years and now, in addition to the best available way to attach light sets to trees, now they have a second great function as ornament hangers! Hope this tip helps as you think forward to the upcoming Christmas Season. I love my customers and I really enjoy it when they find innovative uses for products! Best regards, Shellie Gardner  Why is this Bride crying? Why is this bride is crying? It’s because she waited until the day before her wedding to shop for lights to decorate her wedding tent and battery lights for the tables. She can’t find them at the local craft store and overnighting them is going to cost a small fortune. She’s the victim of a Christmas Light Emergency. Hand her a hankie. All year long I help folks out with their lighting emergencies. Two days before prom, 4 days before a large corporate event….. December 10th….. if you haven’t made a plan for lighting you could find yourself in a bind. Here are 6 easy ways to avoid a Christmas Light Emergency. 1. Christmas is on the 25th of December. Every year. (Really.) Start planning your Christmas display in September or beginning of October. Some specialty lights like red net lights and multi color chasing lights, for instance based on last years experience, can run out of stores all over the country by the end of October. (Who knew?!?) Don’t wait until the bottleneck of the week before Thanksgiving – one of the busiest times in Christmas light sales of the year. Make sure to find your lights locally or order a couple of weeks early so that ground shipping will be sure to have them at your door in time to start installing them the weekend after Thanksgiving like all your neighbors. Otherwise, you may have to explain to your spouse why you are so free to watch games all weekend. Note… if you really mean to watch games all weekend and would like a quiet 4-day weekend off the ladder and in your favorite chair, order your lights at the beginning of Thanksgiving week and then blame everything on UPS. 2. Don’t wait until you are ready to put up decorations for parties and Holidays the actual day of the installation or event. The stress of spending summer in your hot attic, the fact that your lights are bundled in a ball in a storage tote and the fact there may be children in the house can all contribute to light failure at the most inopportune time. Take the lights out a couple of weeks in advance and test them to make sure they are all working. If you have a few missing or blown bulbs, use the replacements that came with your sets that you’ve stored safely in a properly marked storage bag … or use the worst string of lights to give it’s life to provide bulbs to the rest of your sets in order to get them all working again. If you fail to get them all in working order, you should still have time to order lights. Emergency averted. 3. Give yourself plenty of time to plan for your party. Back out 6 weeks. Put pen to paper. Choose the colors of lights that you’d like to use for the shower, Bar Mitzvah, homecoming dance or Superbowl party that you are planning. Think about the types of lights that would best accent your big day. Line the walks with big old fashioned bulbs (these are generally never available locally), plan to hang lights under your porch or deck roof. Think about accenting trees by wrapping their trunks with mini lights or trunk wrap nets. Done in advance, you can make a plan and then find great deals and save on shipping. 4. Store your lights well so that they are ready for your next event. Purchase specially designed mini lights wrap and reel storage devices – these are readily available during the Christmas season at places like Target, Home Depot and Loews. Use them to nicely store your mini lights. You can also use the cardboard centers of wrapping paper to wind your lights around to store in flat storage containers meant to store Christmas wrapping paper. By storing your lights properly, they’ll be ready to install and will be less likely to have experienced damage while in hibernation. Thus you will have avoided an emergency. 5. Touch base with a Master Electrician in your area before ordering and installing lights. You know, the guy two doors down or your brother-in-law. Everyone knows an electrician. There is nothing worse than finding out after you’ve ordered 3000 feet of C9 bulbs and cords that 3 outlets on a 15 Amp breaker will not supply sufficient power for lighting your 60 foot tree. You’ll have to return all those lights (and pay all that shipping) and then order an alternative like LED lights that can run dozens of sets on one plug. Save yourself the headache and consult with a professional who really can save you time. 6. When you order Christmas lights, open them the day you receive them and count them to insure that you received everything you ordered – mistakes are rare but they can happen to anyone. Also, take a little extra time to plug them in to make sure everything is A-OK. Lights can be damaged in shipping so a quick check in advance is always handy so you have time to request replacements if the problem isn’t easily solved by re-seating a dislodged bulb or replacing a fuse. Buy the same batteries that you’ll be using at your event and test them in the battery lights that you will be using. Do this to first make sure there are no problem with the lights and second, consider timing how long your lights will last with the batteries you’ve purchased. Be sure to use new fresh batteries and purchase them at a retailer who will have good turnover. How long your lights will last depends on the batteries. And on an unrelated note, if you are a blushing bride planning the lighting on your wedding day, consider asking your Dad to help with that project. Especially if he is the kind of guy who used to have a radio in the basement and likes to tinker with stuff. He’ll love to work on an electrical project for you while you and your mother worry about cake and flowers. Just make sure to ask him a couple months in advance. It doesn’t take much… just a little planning and preparation to avoid most light emergencies. Sometimes, they just can’t be helped. That’s when I start to think out of the box and just make it happen. Best regards, Shellie Gardner Have you ever wanted to install Christmas lights on a roof, shed, a strip of flashing or a fence – but didn’t want to drill a hole or mess with silicone? This season, there is a new clip manufactured in Lubbock, TX that is the answer to this question. All it does is slip onto the base of traditional C7 and C9 sockets and it has a super strong magnet that sticks to any ferrous metal surface (the kind that magnets stick to LOL). They do come in two sizes so make sure before you order any kind of clip that you know what size socket you are working with. C7 sockets are for bulbs with intermediate bases – the same size as night lights. C9’s are larger – the bulbs are about 2 inches long. I hear from folks all year asking about magnetic clips and I’m glad that a solution finally exists  Magnetic Christmas Light Clip Shellie Gardner I just finished a quick article that covers the two most common reasons that mini lights fail. Don’t send last season’s lights to the junk heap without trying a couple of quick tips to get them working. It’s a great way to use a resource a little longer and stretch you decorating dollars. Here is a taste of the article: Mini lights have a really varied lifespan depending on how thick their wiring is, where you bought them and a general level of quality. Don’t expect 1000’s or maybe not even 100’s of hours out of the 2 for a dollar sets that are available at loss leaders during the Christmas season. Commercial grade incandescent mini lights can last up to 3000 hours of continuous use. Let’s say that it hasn’t been that long since you’ve purchased your sets. You rescued them from moth-ball holiday storage. I hope you wrapped them around a wrapping paper tube or on one of the cool light storage reels that you can pick up at Target so that you don’t have a tangled knotted mess. If you did use the “chuck them” method of storage then you may have to work a bit to untangle them. As you are doing so, make sure that there are not frayed or worn wiring or insulation. If you do see any exposed wiring, discard the set and start fresh. Here is the complete article on Mini Light Repair Tips Shellie Gardner |
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