Christmas Lights Advice

Who would think that something going on around the world could affect your Christmas decorations? That is exactly what is happening as China diverts electricity, resources and man power to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Check out this article in Business Week - As Olympics Open, China’s Economy Slows

Industries are being asked to cease manufacture in rotation throughout the country. As a result, some styles of LED Christmas Lights are coming into the country several weeks later than normal.

So kick back, watch your favorite competitors but remember you may have to wait a little before your favorite Christmas lights arrive for the Holidays.

Go USA!!

Shellie
Christmas Lights
Copyright 2008

It looks like the folks over at Purdue are hard at work improving LED manufacture – hopefully this technology will eventually help decrease the cost of LED Christmas lights!

Advance brings low-cost, bright LED lighting closer to reality from PhysOrg.com
Researchers at Purdue University have overcome a major obstacle in reducing the cost of “solid state lighting,” a technology that could cut electricity consumption by 10 percent if widely adopted.
[...]

July 23rd has become the unofficial Christmas in July day!!  Since alot of Christmas lights gurus start ordering their lights in August and September, it’s time to start thinking ahead.

Some colors and styles of lights are snapped up and go out of stock pretty quickly so if you are interested in curtain mini lights, brown wire lights and some varieties of battery operated lights order online early.

Most of the specialty Christmas lights available on the internet will be coming back in stock in August or September.  Check out your favorite online vendors and sign up for their newsletters and waiting lists to ensure you’ll be one of the first customers in line.

Now is a great time to fish all of last season’s Christmas lights out of the closet or attic and take an honest inventory of what you have that you’ll reuse for the 2008 season.

Plug all of your light sets in – of any variety – to confirm that they all come on.  Sometimes inhospitable attic conditions can affect the lifespan of light sets.

Most incandescent mini lights last less than 1000 hours unless you purchased commercial grade mini lights that last anywhere from 3000 to 10000 hours. 

Popular LED Christmas Light sets are rated by their manufacturers for 50,000 hours of operation.  Consider this a specification related to the LED durablity compared to traditional lights.  Stresses and wear on wiring, power surges (always use a surge protector with LED Christmas lights, harsh weather exposure and use in static vs dynamic displays can decrease LED life or can ruin the sets altogether.

So make sure you check all you lights and start thinking about any additions, substitutions or replacements you’ll need to add to your wish list.

Respecfully submitted,

Shellie Gardner
Christmas Lights

Tags: Christmaslights, Christmas in July, led Christmas lights

Most of the seasoned veterans already know that the current generation of retrofit LED Christmas light bulbs (not the pre-lamped sets) are not suitable for choreographed displays but I thought it merited a mention here.

This is due to engineering differences between the sets and bulbs – primarily related to the way the voltage is stepped down in each scenario – and the bulbs receive an impulse when they are rapidly turned on and off due to a capacitor used in their design. So, flash, flash, fizzle.

So, take advantage of the retrofit C7 and C9 bulbs in your gorgeous static displays but as of now don’t purchase them for dynamic computerized displays.

Oh no! What happened? I just plugged in 20 sets of mini lights and they went out right away – what’s up??

Well, first and foremostly, what were you thinking hooking 20 sets of mini lights together? Unless your mini light set is one of a few special commercial rated type of sets, the maximum number of sets that you should connect in series is 3 – per UL.

Back to your dilema then, unplug your mini lights and check the fuse in the first set. If your set has a replaceable fuse (and I’m thinking most do – if yours doesn’t then email me then chuck it in the trash) then use a little scredriver, insert it into the slot at the top of the little door in your plug you had never noticed before, slide the door back and voila! there is your blown fuse.

This is the point where you take the clearly marked envelope containing the fuses you prudently saved when you unpacked your mini lights. Now retrieve a new fuse. If there is not fuse retrieval going on because you threw away the little tiny plastic pounch with the tiny little cylindrical glass looking things that you were confident that you’d never need – then take your lights to a local home improvement center and buy a replacement fuse.

Then use that same little flat head screwdriver that you opened your fuse door in the first place, pop out the popped fuse (if you are really adventurous, hold it up to the light to see what you misadventures in wiring caused) and pop your new fuse in. Close the door and you should be back in business.

Use only fuses with the same rating as the one you are removing (current rating). Again, they guy and the Home Depot – oops, Home Improvement Center – will help you with this.

Never attempt to jump or otherwise bypass a fuse. They are there for your protection.

I am not an electrician. Please consult a Master Electrician if you have any questions about this process.

Happy Christmas Light Decorating,

Shellie
Christmas Light Source

The beginning of the season is a great time to start thinking about how to store your Christmas Lighting after the season is over – especially when you are pulling that mess of wiring out of the great big box that your threw them into last January (hopefully it wasn?t last June – we all have our weaknesses – mine was February.) I?ll be adding tips to this list as I remember more!

Shellie’s Top Ways to Store Christmas Lights

1. Before you remove anything, take photos of this years extravaganza and make notes of what and how you set up your display. This will save alot of headaches next year. If you ordered your lights off the internet, find your order and save it so you?ll know exactly what you ordered when you find you need replacement or additional sets.
2. Save the little boxes your C7 and C9 Christmas Light Bulbs came in. These are not the most durable of the Christmas lighting options and it?s nice to pop them back where they came from at the end of the season.
3. Use the clothes hanger method of Chrismtas light storage. Wrap them into big loops and hang them over a sturdy (wood is great) clothes hanger and then add a plastic bag – just like at the cleaners – and hang them on a hook in the attic or in your Christmas decorations closet.
4. Roll your lights onto a Wrap and Roll storage reel – or a similar device that you can find on the web. They store up to 200 lights worth of mini light sets. For larger light sets, you can also use a garden hose reel but you have to careful not to overload the reel and stretch the wiring of your light sets.
5. Re-use your Christmas wrapping cardboard and wrap your mini lights around the tubes and store them in a tub made for storing Christmas paper.
6. Use wire ties to keep light sets tidy.

If your mini light set has lost a few bulbs, you might consider discarding it or pulling the lights and saving them as replacement bulbs for other sets next year.

Whether it’s an indoor Christmas tree or an outdoor evergreen, everyone wants to know how many lights they need to purchase to make it match the perfect tree in their mind’s eye.

That’s a tough question. I tried to write a program to calculate it but frankly, it turned out to be a near impossible task. Lighting a tree isn’t like filling a swimming pool where you just measure the pool and do a little multiplication to calculate the volume of the water required to fill it to the desired level. (If someone takes this project on – logarithmic spirals and the like, then please share, otherwise I just decided to take 2 tylenol and moved on…..)

More art than math, one person’s smattering of lights is another person’s light circus. But since I get this question all the time, I’m going to give you my guidelines and you can trust your intuition to go from there.

I’m going to assume you are working with an evergreen tree. If you are working on a tree that loses its leaves, you use half the lights since you can see lights on both sides of the tree at the same time.

First, measure the tree’s height, decide what style of light you are going to use (mini lights, C7 lights, or C9 lights) and look at the following chart. I’ve organized it by height but some trees are fatter and some are taller and thinner. Because this is not an exact science, start early in the season (think September/October) so that you can purchase more light strings if you need them.

Rule of Thumb Table for Buying Christmas Lights for an Evergreen Tree

The table that used to be here has been replaced by an automated tool!

See the How Many Christmas Lights Should I put on my tree calculator to get a nice range of number of different lights to put on your indoor or outdoor tree.

The tool is set up to input whether you want C7, C9 or mini lights and the height of your tree. Then the tool kicks out a suggested range of number of lights. Have fun.

As a tip, I prefer a 4″ spacing on my mini lights for trees 10 feet and under and 6″ spacing for all those taller.

I like 12 inch spacing on the C7 and C9 lights because that is the spacing available on the standard light strings that are ready to go with fuses.

I hope this helps you get started on your quest for a perfectly lit tree during the Christmas tree. If in doubt (especially with the mini lights) order one extra set. Even if you don’t use it, you’ll have 50 or more spare bulbs.

Shellie
Christmas Lights
Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved

It’s getting closer to the Christmas season and I know that since you are here, you are thinking of Christmas lights.  Since this is a blog of tips, tricks and articles about Christmas lights I thought I’d better start adding some tips.

Here’s the tip for today:  Do not install your Christmas light plugs and power sources in an area where they will be completely saturated.  I know this sounds like perfect common sense but you would be surprised by what folks will do.

Don’t put your timer next to a sprinkler system head.  Soon, it will just be a box on a stake.

Plugs, adapters and bulbs don’t belong in everlasting puddles.  Christmas lights engineered to work outside are durable, but don’t put them in the mud of your flower bed.

I guess these tips are really common sense but considering what I’ve seen….. I thought I’d share.

Shellie

Want your lights to alternate in the colors of the Irish flag or some other custom configuration?Try the following tips if �ready made light strings� don�t come in the colors you need.

1. Purchase your bulbs and light stringers or cords separately and “build” them yourself. For example, you could buy 50 feet of C7 light cord and then purchase a box of 25 red bulbs and a box of 25 green bulbs. Then presto, take 30 minutes (or less) screwing your light bulbs in and there you are – custom lighting.
2. For mini lights and led christmas lights where it is really inconvenient or impossible to customize the bulbs, order strings of lights with a 5 inch or greater spacing and install them “on top” of each other offset by 1/2 of the spacing for 2 sets or 1/3 the spacing for 3 sets. This is a great way to get the color combinations that you want

These are my two favorite ways to alternate colors. If I come across any additional ideas, I�ll definitely post them.

Shellie