I always used municipal lights. I got a bunch around 9 years ago and they still work. None have failed yet. Probably will last forever and in long term it is cheaper to use the good ones. Also those are more bright and you can chain them. Rolling them up in a ball is a good wee idea. Thanks to Clive for that
I do particularly like the HO5 cable on the power supplies, and of course, the fact that it can be wired to a plug which actually fits within an outdoor socket, or to a 16A type.
I'm on 6 years of public light installation in my village, we're a volunteer group doing it. 240v Festoon along the roads, and heavy duty 24v LED strings in 5 Christmas Trees (I must remember to try the ball method! It's definitely good fun doing it!
So no Aliexpress vendor / common search phrase on ebay? Christmas is coming up and I'd like to run something @ 120v for the exterior that'll last harsh New England winters -- probably less wind than a Glasgow winter, but more continuous snow load). In fact, I don't really mind DIY'ing some SJ(OO)W thermoset cable (more or less the equivalent of H05 from what I can tell...?) then tossing some expensive Ancor marine grade heat shrink seals and putting leds in manually, as long as the "tangle bullshit factor" for the next season is as close to 0 as possible. (In fact, I realllly loved those color changing LEDs you had on one of your 45 minute 'rambly' videos against your black PCB-- I'd love those for one subtle set for the front hedges, then have it backdrop against white icicles for my home) Also, you seem like the guy to ask this - I have vanity lighting in my guest bathroom above the mirror that's using stupid 8x40watt E26 base lights. Not only is it stupidly expensive, but it's horribly gaudy since the light is harsh, harsh "in your face" white (think: along the lines of CFLs from the 90s). Any suggestions to half the lumen output + a nice soft white (think: partly cloudly, 10AM after a snow-fall so the color K isn't crazy, but you get full visibility and the 'ambiance' is 'warm'). Again, don't mind buying the pieces and honkin' them together. THaaaaaanks Clive!! (Also what did you do with your Glasgow flat when you left to go back home? Put it up for let I hope? Don't tell me you sold it!! What a travesty that would be, it sounded spectacular!!)
If you go on amazon you can find ones that kinda look like the smaller municipal type LED strings. It's from a brand called WeRChristmas, they have an LED Christmas lights system where you can extend the string, spur off from it with different fittings they sell (like the municipal ones Clive described in the ladder shape) and seem to be fairly bulky compared to the other sets I have came across. I'm sure there's probably another source that sells identical sets cheaper but I can't seem to find them. I think you could even plug some of the rope/tube lights into the ends of them assuming that the rope light takes rectified mains and doesn't draw more current than the rectifier is rated to supply (60x100 LED strings from what I understand). Will find out this Christmas how well they hold up in Scottish weather.
Might have been worth mentioning outdoor lights should be on an RCCB. I had a bunch of those crappy clear chinese lights on my palm trees and they did exactly what you said; rusted, shorted, and shocked me. Good job I put them on a RCCB protected circuit! Great video, I wish I'd seen it two years ago, it would have saved me lots of time and money.
Who else remembers the "good" old days when they where just small bulbs in series with the mains. Single insulated cable running right into the plug ... safe !
Put up lights identical to the first ones you showed for my parents recently. They had corroded quite a bit indeed, several of the strings where dark. Me being me though, decided to just fix them, its all fine now minus a few corroded LED's in the bin.
Bought some indoor lights this year, from a large local store. The last led had about 2cm of bare wire leading to it, a reputeable brand too, I hope mine was a one off
I wish you'd have this video up a few weeks before that - I've learned a lot of fun tidbits. I've recently did a controller for those outdoor 230V type lights, they had 45 LEDs in series, in 2 strings (same 3 wire scheme with 2 wires right down the middle, with 90 lights total in 10m strip). I wonder why guys who requested it didn't specify low voltage lights, it would be much much safer. The 'power supplies' that they used with those were just some overmolded 3A rectifier bridges, no smoothing, no nothing. I really hope they plug it into a ground-fault-interrupter in case someone wants to get intimate with the wiring. I guess I'll have a few sleepless nights whilst that thing operates.
jeez in canada our standard 120 v outdoor ones are about the same as the "industrial" ones, I would never think of using even the lower end municipal ones outdoors, they also have hard plastic shells on the LED leads
Thanks for this vid! Fun fact: the more industrial 5m, thick, chainable type can even survive being powerwashed. Had 45m mounted on the front of a large house that got painted in Summer, and powerwashed beforehand. I forgot all about them being up there year-round, but when Christmas rolled around again, they all worked! Well, 2 strings died a week before Christmas, but they were already 3 years old, so I couldn't complain. I DID complain anyway, of course. Now, I won't use anything else.
The H-section insulator is a hot-melt preform which reflows when the heatshrink is shrunk. As for corrosion, some sets I have from 2006 show no signs of corrosion, probably due to having copper leadframes on the LEDs. But sets with the copper-plated steel ones used these days will need to be gone over when taken down and any corroded LEDs dealt with and resealed. I've gone over a set used for the second time this year with a squirt of silicone oil in each LED sleeve - I'll report back on its effectiveness in January.
Finally got around to inspecting them before packing away 'til December and not one of the 580 LEDs in three strings I had out showed any signs of corrosion this year. One string was new, the other two have been up for a couple of years and have always needed some rework/repair. So it looks like a good dousing of Lidl silicone oil does the trick.
I have seen the lights you showed at 4:30 before at JW - they have a socked (unfused) to connect more... Just try to measure the resistance of those wires (and plug a heavy load or something for some fire fun)
To all recommendations Clive made I would also suggest using RCD switch (if it isnt already there). If anything happens, RCD might help to minimize the damage.
I think one of the commercial displays use some cheap lights to wrap around the tree trunks. Then, at the end of the season, they just use wire-cutters to remove them. Saves a lot on labor.
I'm envious of even your 'domestic' grade lights. In the US, the vast majority of consumer grade LED mini-lights available at retail are still made in the traditional miniature incandescent style, which is to say the diode sits in a polarized holder and is pressed into a socket base. Of course the diode leads are the same hair-thin, sometimes-plated copper as the miniature incandescents used, and corrode readily. This is what they sell us as 'outdoor' lighting. The only explanation I've ever got from distributors is that consumers have a strong preference for light strings with user serviceable lamps, even with multi-thousand hour rated LEDs.
Clive, "domestic" is also used to mean "for home use" in the USA. We have domestic, then commercial, then industrial products. Getting more heavy duty as they go. Or sometimes just used as a marketing term. We would likely call those very beefy lights "industrial", and the slightly less beefy lights "commercial".
with the metal plates you reference being in the pack on the cable. it might just be to make it seem like a better quality unit or so that it keeps the cable straight. I've seen in some cheap electric lawnmowers they have had weights in them to make them seem heavier or better quality as people just seem to associate weight with quality...
I remember the macro shop suppliers used to sell some pretty good quality lights like the industrial ones you talked about, where you could join them together with different purchasable connectors and they were extremely well insulated (as in you could put them under the water without damage (and without swimming)). I have had those on the front of my house now for a good few years and they have been fine, yet the ones I got before them (which were rated for outdoor use but were like the cheap ones you described) corroded away and half of the chain (in a patchy pattern) ended up dead. I do admit, I feel like emailing this video to my towns related bodies as the lights we have had in Southport in previous years have always seemed to be half dead. we used to have lights going all the way down the main entrance road from lamppost to lamppost, but they were always half dead and now they have just been removed entirely, leaving only cheapish looking white lights on the occasional trees.
I've never seen any like that big heavy set. I hate to think what they'd cost but in a commercial setting totally worth it. America home of save a dime now pay a dollar later.
evening clive, I work on the water networks main across england however we do dabble with wales from time to time, The flowmeters which we install for the likes of Thames water are all Potted using polyurethane potting compound. Its the only way we can guarantee a fully water proof seal for an instrument that should last years taking millions of measurements. Edit: The best thing about the polyurethane vs resin is the fact that its removable with everyone's favorite screwdriver the terminal driver. Meaning the instrument can be re used and re terminated.
I've been working non-stop since late October installing, troubleshooting and running a municipal Christmas lighting show, check Christmas In Color, Goodyear AZ
We use rope light too. It's that 1% non-waterproof bit that's the problem. The newer LED stuff has that annoying thing of tracking internally if water gets in and blowing its rectifier, taking out everything on that circuit. Rope light will be getting its own video.
Any recommendations of suppliers of quality lights please Clive? I've done the cheap sets for the last two years but had enough this year so not bothered putting any up. I'm more of a do it right once/fit and forget person.
Firstly, I effing LOVE your videos!!! AvE, Julian and yourself are my absolute favorite 'engineering' folks (with Dave Jones being a bit down the list), the little bits of sarcasm I get from you are spectacular! I also did want to point out that 'domestic' doesn't strictly mean 'national', it is a contextual thing, so when you are talking about LED's being strung up, it is understood that domestic means 'household' or 'consumer' use, but if you said, "Not manufactured domestically" it is implied that it means 'nationally'. Just thought I would clear up some stupid American misunderstandings. lol I would also like to address the Aluminum/Aluminium mess, it actually comes down to Sir Humphry Davy not being able to make up his dang mind, and waffled between the two, by the time the 'new' name had made it over here, the former name had already been established... So I blame him for this mess! I could also refer to the whole Z/Zed mess, It can not be Zed, because you are using other letters to pronounce a letter, and that is not how letters work... lol ;-) Be well, and thank you so very, very much for the videos!
Yesterday I set up our flagpole Christmas tree (from Fairybell) they are very nice but rather expensive. We also have some other lights and rectifiers from MK Illumination.
Clockmakers clock.... I don't put up much because when you've spent months putting up council lights the desire to start again on your own home is low. But I'm thinking of doing something this year.
Warm colours with maybe low level blue as a backdrop. It's going to be experimental. Pink or purple were considered, but this is a prototype so I want to use colours that are available in more industrial stuff.
Clive with all these Christmas lights do you decorate your house with them for Christmas? Would love to see a video on which lights you use for your tree & outdoor display :)
Possibly one of the few advantages of living Down Under - we can get away with non-Mains (solar) installations, and the problem of wicking corrosion doesn't exist - not much opportunity for water ingress when the daytime temp is in the mid-40's (Celsius), with a relative humidity approaching single figures! I'm still using "El Cheapo" Chinese LED solar lights I bought five years ago - a bit faded maybe, but they work just fine otherwise!
Do you happen to know what they use for the big "curtain" of lights above Royal Exchange Square? Is it just lots of individual strings or can you get some sort of prefabricated mesh arrangement?
If you look up at it you'll see that there are steel catenary support wires strung across and the lights themselves are the type I mentioned with the bus-bar strip and lots of individual strings. Where the strings are too long you may see them rolled up into balls at the end of each run. The strings are tied across one or two at a time. It's very time consuming.
I just replaced a set of those cheapo lights that had been outdoors for three Christmas seasons. The translucent plastic had gone all brown, and the diode legs rusty. The first set of 8 LEDs no longer light up. I noticed you didn't touch on the topic of AC vs DC transformers and flicker. AvE did an interesting video on his channel a while back, where his small daughter was reading a book under an AC set, which flashed like a disco strobe in slow motion.
great video big clive! thanks for all your time & effort put into this video, it was really informative. ;) A few years ago i was fortunate enough to find a long string of professional Christmas lights being sold in a charity shop for only £10 and i snatched them up. :) They are so sturdy and reliable! Can you please recommend some good online British suppliers of professional / municipal Christmas lights? Many Thanks and Happy Holidays! :)
We never did the outside lights when I was a kid, but we did have a lighted tree every year. Only problem was my mom would just stuff all the lights in a box in the attic after Christmas. Invariably the stress of being untangled by a couple of lazy kids the next year destroyed the lights. So we'd chuck them and go pick up another set of the cheapest lights we could find at the dollar store.
I still have some 15 Volt carbon filament Christmas lights which are in a series string of 9 bulb sockets using OLD cloth insulation on the wires. They are close to 100 years old and haven't burnt out, but they do get HOT!!! Especially the dark blue painted bulb. The bulbs are each painted a different color and are about one inch sphere with a little 'tit' where they were evacuated. Also have 15 Volt tungsten filament Christmas lights in series strings of 9 bulb sockets with newer cloth insulation on the wires. They are from the 1950s. Some of the bulbs are conventional shape, but others are bubble lights using methyl chloride fill. They get pretty hot too. But don't hold a candle to the carbon filament bulbs. Christmas light safety and fire prevention has come a long way
Treasure those. I wish now that I'd kept some of the older figural lamps from the past, and bought the ones that appeared in junk markets. You can fit new miniature lamps internally in some of them.
i have a set of tungsten filament tree lights with rubber coated wires from the late 30s or early 40s, must have been super luxurious state of the art stuff back in those days, those bulbs also get hot as hell but pretty much all of the original bulbs still work
Here in the states we too use the term "domestic" to mean the "private home" as well as the "homeland" and it's usually completely apparent based on the context.
because you not only drive on the wrong side of the road but also celebrate Christmas in the summer. you are even worse than the British ;) and I haven't even mentioned walking upside down. ;)
The main issue I have with LED christmas lights is really just light color. We live in a flat and don't have any lights outside, but we have a rather nice "curtain" of around 220 tungsten lights in front of our living room window and ever since they banned tungsten bulbs we've been trying to find a suitable LED replacement. I know good golden white LEDs exist, I've seen them many years ago already when LED christmas lights weren't really a big thing yet. But for some reason practically every manufacturer uses really cheap LEDs, they look just terrible, either greenish or magenta, not yellow enough or just plain monochromatic orange... I doubt I'll find a good LED curtain, maybe I'll zig-zag a 50m string in front of the window. But finding one with acceptable light color seems impossible. Apart from that, is it just me who really can't deal with flickering lights? I can always just whack a cap into the christmas lights but I think I shouldn't have to. But apparently people don't mind. I have one of those cheap strings that can blink by switching polarity, half "warm" white, half red and orange. The controller made a horrible 1 kHz sound the whole time and most white strings are dead by now. I suppose the while LEDs just couldn't take the switching or maybe they were driven quite hard who knows. They shouldn't have started dying like flies after just a few weeks. It's just, even though tungsten lights are banned and the industry switched over to LED, I don't see commercially available LED lights as a suitable replacement so I ended up buying replacement tungsten bulbs on ebay.
Streamtronics tungsten bulbs haven't been banned for Christmas lights. You can still get new strings of them. Lowe's has them, for example. The only required standard for lighting is an energy consumption standard for regular household bulbs, and it's not even all that strict. Halogen bulbs meet it just fine. But Christmas lights are in the "specialty" category, which is exempt from the standard. However, LED lights are popular right now, so most stores have chosen to mostly stock those. Lowe's and Target have them. They're just sort of off to the side as an afterthought. Then again, there's quality LED sets available that don't flicker and have similar color to incandescent bulbs.
I have gone the other way this year. Got fed up with the expensive ones not lasting out side very well so I got cheap one's and removed the 24 volt transformer and replaced it with a 12 to 24 volt DC to DC converter and running them from 12 volt lead acid batteries which has done away with the need of waterproof extension leads. if they only last 2 years it is still cheaper than as the expensive ones were failing after about 3 years and cost 5 times as much.
I think the North American equivalent word to domestic for you would be consumer, if something is consumer grade its targeted at the home gamer, and industrial would be business and industry. Regardless of vocabulary love your videos, hope you keep up these videos.
Always wondered about the British to the mains connector (from Canada here), the Black painting on the prongs is non-conductive paint so as you are plugging it in the chance of being shocked is minimal? If so that sounds extremely reasonable. side note: as someone getting into working live shows, you've actually helped me understand somethings. thanks eh?
I have professional grade lights around my house and just finished replacing the system with LED ones. The previous sets were incandescent and lasted around 6-8 seasons before big areas went dark. The lifetime of those was said to be 10K hours, and the new LED ones are rated at 40K hours. Will they last 24-32 years? Who knows, but I hope they are of the same quality.
Wish low voltage LED would become more popular in the US. They are too expensive over here to purchase when buying them for Christmas. Even then, most times they use high voltage LEDs. With low voltage LEDs cost lowering every year though, it will be great to replace all my lighting and eventually save on power costs. Only issue with the LED ones if an LED burns out, replacing them is a pain.
I don't know if you're trolling or serious, but how would this save any appreciable amount on your power bill? And how often do you have an LED burn out in relation to failure due to corrosion or wire fatigue?
Ten years ago, my father acquired the Christmas lights from Birmingham cathedral. They ran off a 240-110v site transformer that had been painted purple and took lorry bulbs, they were a single cable with 1" globes every foot or so. Although they looked good, they were a F#CKING nightmare to work with. Since then we have upgraded to the "industrial" daisy-chain style White LED lights.
I have one of those "safe" AC ones that cost 5 buck, years ago... (They needed to be repaired though, because a resistor died in them and all they did was shimmer)
jusb1066 yep, thats probably such a product, maybe with a bit more glue than usual. Works pretty fine, three years and no signs of rust or anything. Probably UV is the biggest problem now.
+jusb1066 You'll find it on eBay if you search for "marine shrink tubing". If you start poking about in the solar PV equipment area it'll start showing up in your recommended items. Waterproofing is what it is all about.
I have some lights that are wired in 2 pairs of 100 in series, the power supply is just a bridge rectifier and the output is 325V DC, not the safest kind of lights...
If you kluge together strings of water-proof-ish RGB lights, you could select the color you'd want of each string... which begs the question: If you mix RGB lights with CMYK lights, will they cancel each other out?
I'd like to know why all domestic lights have the same basic 8 function controllers - is there a reason that they don't do domestic sets of static lights with the occasional strobing LED every 5 or 6 lights like is so popular in municipal sets?
Holy crap, that plug is HUGE! How do you deal with cramped spaces behind things when you're plugging things into the wall that are the size of a small literal brick?
The wire comes out at the bottom and the plug itself can be fairly thin. I'd ask the same question, how do you put things in a cramped space where the wire comes straight out?
The reliability of the cheap lights could be improved by using adhesive lined heatshrink. The hot melt glue would make them less prone to water ingress. Slightly more expensive than plain heatshrink but cheaper than the resin sealed professional lights.
I have some commercial injection molded LED string lights that run on 120 VAC strings, these have rectifiers built into the strings. These "good" strings are getting harder to find. These strings are water proof.
I really should figure out why my string of solar lights don't work properly. It's something like 100 lights, running from a small panel and 2x AD NiCad batteries. Needless to say, they only light about half way along then fade out. More volts, but I've no idea how many volts I need!
We picked up a spotlight type device that shoots patterns onto our house, its all black, and has that exact plug, i'm thinking they're from the same company.
+bigclivedotcom Why are 4 channel multi-function lights so rare nowadays, is it purely a cost thing? I miss having lights where only 1 of the 4 colours would be on at a time!
It's a cost saving thing. Especially with the new sets that save even more wire by reversing the polarity to control two sets of lights on just two wires.
i suddenly find it odd that you see almost exclusive use of tungsten christmas lights in the US. (well in Californial at least) ive never even seen this type of christmas light before.
If they used the heavier heat-shrink with the waterproofing mastic in it would that not make the strings a lot safer? But Yes I do it would cost $0.10 USD more.
clive, i have a metal snowman frame with rope lights pre ziptied on, but a section of the rope lights are off and then after that section the rope lights work again. Why is this and why do the rope lights work after a section of them dont work? thanks
It uses a parallel bus of power sires and separate strings of LEDs internally. You can fit a new section using a spike and sleeve system, but it may be hard finding the exact material to use. I'll be covering rope light in a different video.
bigclivedotcom I fixed a 30 meter rope light by cutting the bad sections and sodering it again. It's 26 meters only but it works! Thanks for your tutorial on how to stop christmas lights flashing, I opened up three boxes from curtain LED lights that flashed out of sync and they look a lot better when steady on. I just cut the box from the rope light and sodered the wires together since it's mains powered, not like the curtains.
Maybe you would know the answer to this question, Clive: ... Would you know why many towns, just use white Lights at Christmas, instead of say, Green and Red? I'm only asking as you mentioned 3 different types of white for Glasgow, so wondered if you knew. :) Thanks for another fantastic upload! :)
It's partly "designer" and partly to reduce the need to stock more than two colours of spare material. In George Square's previous lights I introduced as much colour as possible because I regard Xmas lights as being for the kids more than the adults.
Yes they are more expensive but as you point out it's worth it. Typical home lights are (2016) about US$4 per string, while a "commercial" lighting set is $15 for 50 feet.
I work in a hardware store chain in Norway, and we've sold 240V mains LED strings of the "municipal" quality for a few years now. They're super robust and pretty much never fail, except for the rectifier box. They were potted using hard plastic around a hollow plastic box containing the circuit, but with HR05N rubbertype cable it didn't seal properly so water leaked in, and with ~325V DC they pretty much corroded to hell instantly.. I sent a nuclear email to the producer last year and said THIS is what you're doing wrong, and this is what you're going to do. They did everything I said, and now we've had 3 complaints for about 1000 strings sold this year in my store. Super robust and extendable to 3200 lights or about 320 meters. The hookup cables with the rectifiers literally contains a 3A fuse and 4x 1N5408 diodes. Super simple, robust, and works year after year. All the complained strings last year were fine except the rectifiers, so I have a pile myself and the store have about 200m outside for display. It's weird looking at my house and knowing that there's about 240W of LED strings. Or give or take 300m. That one bush is pretty well covered. The "heavy duty" lights are worth every penny spent. They're about twice as expensive as the cheapie thin ones, but works ten times longer and ten times better. Nothing to complain about.
A few times now I have gone to a local retail store to look for lights and give up after finding only cruddy ones that are poorly made, half-wave rectified, and/or a poor color. Then, as I am leaving, I notice nicely-colored, non-flickering, well-made ones installed on the trees right outside! How much of a premium do the professional ones normally go for?
In America, domestic means made in America (so, eg, domestic car) or it can mean in the home. It just depends on context. So describing lights as domestic vs municipal is totally fine, but you could also describe them as domestic vs foreign. Either way is understandable and normal in American English. You just have to make it clear which way you're using it.
my stepdad has a set with concave large leds with thick wires and they go around the guttering i think the led size was 10mm and it had 1000s probably 500w worth i think
as he dose a Christmas charity and runs as much lights as possible and once he blew the main transformer that feeds the farm then he had to replace it which wasn't cheap lol . then he got a large 50kw generator to run most of the Christmas lights
Do you think that dipping the heatshrunk LEDs of the domestic versions in hot glue would help in any way to make them close to suitable for repeated home outdoor use? Or would UV radiation make the glue or the actual cable brittle and unreliable in the near future?
I bought some Chinese LEDs that look like the cheap ones you have there. They lasted about 2 weeks in our sub 0c snowy weather. Lesson learned, however the I noticed the US wire and LED connections are very different and a lot heavier. Have you worked with the US style wire and connections? If not can I send you some when I get some cash?
What a great video!! All mine are nice full wave rectified and 31 volts this year, they even have that same connector that is screwed in like yours. previous years they all seemed to be 24v with a connector like what a laptop has why is that? Is that screw in connector a standard I have seen it in lights that can be connected together in a string?
The outdoor Ikea lights seem ok, had some for a few years and they haven't failed yet (well the set that just has LED's attached like an IDC connector to a thickish flat white flex @3v some of them have failed and so they are not used anymore), Have an Icicle that runs at 12V and some colour changing stars and some of the other Kilometer sets which have removable lamp covers and they sell different styles of replacement covers. The outside ones have the great advantage that they use the waterproof (although I believe only IP44) inline PSU (Transformer based on the older ones and switching on the newer) so you can use them in outside sockets without a problem. There are no other electronics and the colour changing ones just use colour changing LED'S If I could find them I would happily send you the partially failed set as I really have no use for them anymore.
20 years of experience in christmas lights? That explains why you look like the most positive Santa in the world :).
I love big Clive's presentation style, hes like your favorite Science teacher.
Sometimes I just like to put your videos on in the background and listen to your soothing voice while soldering, operating the radio, etc..
i dont decorate the house for christmas myself, but watching your videos i got interested in what a pro set would look like. so thanks for showing!
Nice picture clive :-), caught you happy doing what you love :-).
I love your drawings, a very quick understanding, far faster than speech.
I always used municipal lights. I got a bunch around 9 years ago and they still work. None have failed yet. Probably will last forever and in long term it is cheaper to use the good ones. Also those are more bright and you can chain them.
Rolling them up in a ball is a good wee idea. Thanks to Clive for that
Was he the guy in the old panel van with the telephoto lens?
I think he *did* realise it was you, Clive.
lol
From HSE I expect. If Clive had been hit by a sky hook he'd have been in trouble.
I do particularly like the HO5 cable on the power supplies, and of course, the fact that it can be wired to a plug which actually fits within an outdoor socket, or to a 16A type.
Can't help but feel like Clive's giving us a sales pitch and I'm loving it :D
You are an excellent teacher Clive! I enjoy learning so many new things from you. Cheers!
I'm on 6 years of public light installation in my village, we're a volunteer group doing it. 240v Festoon along the roads, and heavy duty 24v LED strings in 5 Christmas Trees (I must remember to try the ball method! It's definitely good fun doing it!
Where do you buy the municipal ones ?
We used to buy our stuff from a French company called Blachere.
So no Aliexpress vendor / common search phrase on ebay? Christmas is coming up and I'd like to run something @ 120v for the exterior that'll last harsh New England winters -- probably less wind than a Glasgow winter, but more continuous snow load).
In fact, I don't really mind DIY'ing some SJ(OO)W thermoset cable (more or less the equivalent of H05 from what I can tell...?) then tossing some expensive Ancor marine grade heat shrink seals and putting leds in manually, as long as the "tangle bullshit factor" for the next season is as close to 0 as possible. (In fact, I realllly loved those color changing LEDs you had on one of your 45 minute 'rambly' videos against your black PCB-- I'd love those for one subtle set for the front hedges, then have it backdrop against white icicles for my home)
Also, you seem like the guy to ask this - I have vanity lighting in my guest bathroom above the mirror that's using stupid 8x40watt E26 base lights. Not only is it stupidly expensive, but it's horribly gaudy since the light is harsh, harsh "in your face" white (think: along the lines of CFLs from the 90s). Any suggestions to half the lumen output + a nice soft white (think: partly cloudly, 10AM after a snow-fall so the color K isn't crazy, but you get full visibility and the 'ambiance' is 'warm'). Again, don't mind buying the pieces and honkin' them together.
THaaaaaanks Clive!! (Also what did you do with your Glasgow flat when you left to go back home? Put it up for let I hope? Don't tell me you sold it!! What a travesty that would be, it sounded spectacular!!)
If you go on amazon you can find ones that kinda look like the smaller municipal type LED strings. It's from a brand called WeRChristmas, they have an LED Christmas lights system where you can extend the string, spur off from it with different fittings they sell (like the municipal ones Clive described in the ladder shape) and seem to be fairly bulky compared to the other sets I have came across. I'm sure there's probably another source that sells identical sets cheaper but I can't seem to find them. I think you could even plug some of the rope/tube lights into the ends of them assuming that the rope light takes rectified mains and doesn't draw more current than the rectifier is rated to supply (60x100 LED strings from what I understand). Will find out this Christmas how well they hold up in Scottish weather.
could this be one commercial Christmas lights
Might have been worth mentioning outdoor lights should be on an RCCB. I had a bunch of those crappy clear chinese lights on my palm trees and they did exactly what you said; rusted, shorted, and shocked me. Good job I put them on a RCCB protected circuit! Great video, I wish I'd seen it two years ago, it would have saved me lots of time and money.
Thank you Clive that was most illuminating. And educational too. I will seek out better quality sets in the new year as others have mentioned.
Who else remembers the "good" old days when they where just small bulbs in series with the mains. Single insulated cable running right into the plug ... safe !
Andrew Joy Yes, and if one bulb blew, they all went out, that is until they started putting bypass resistors into them!
Andrew Joy we have one on our tree.
i remember spending days finding which bulb or holder was faulty!
Those are still the most popular type of light strand in America. Even the LED strands are same basic design, they just use diodes for each section.
thechosendude Yeh but electrical safety is something they just don't do outside the UK.
I think your channel might get me back to really working with electronics
Thanks for adding the link to the manufacturing process video. Amazing and fascinating!
Put up lights identical to the first ones you showed for my parents recently. They had corroded quite a bit indeed, several of the strings where dark. Me being me though, decided to just fix them, its all fine now minus a few corroded LED's in the bin.
Now we're doing string theory. Wow thanks Clive
Bought some indoor lights this year, from a large local store. The last led had about 2cm of bare wire leading to it, a reputeable brand too, I hope mine was a one off
Clive, great work! You managed this presentation beautifully! Again thanks for your work and Merry Christmas. David
Merry Christmas BC/DC.
I wish you'd have this video up a few weeks before that - I've learned a lot of fun tidbits.
I've recently did a controller for those outdoor 230V type lights, they had 45 LEDs in series, in 2 strings (same 3 wire scheme with 2 wires right down the middle, with 90 lights total in 10m strip).
I wonder why guys who requested it didn't specify low voltage lights, it would be much much safer.
The 'power supplies' that they used with those were just some overmolded 3A rectifier bridges, no smoothing, no nothing.
I really hope they plug it into a ground-fault-interrupter in case someone wants to get intimate with the wiring.
I guess I'll have a few sleepless nights whilst that thing operates.
jeez in canada our standard 120 v outdoor ones are about the same as the "industrial" ones, I would never think of using even the lower end municipal ones outdoors, they also have hard plastic shells on the LED leads
Thanks for this vid! Fun fact: the more industrial 5m, thick, chainable type can even survive being powerwashed. Had 45m mounted on the front of a large house that got painted in Summer, and powerwashed beforehand. I forgot all about them being up there year-round, but when Christmas rolled around again, they all worked! Well, 2 strings died a week before Christmas, but they were already 3 years old, so I couldn't complain. I DID complain anyway, of course. Now, I won't use anything else.
The H-section insulator is a hot-melt preform which reflows when the heatshrink is shrunk.
As for corrosion, some sets I have from 2006 show no signs of corrosion, probably due to having copper leadframes on the LEDs. But sets with the copper-plated steel ones used these days will need to be gone over when taken down and any corroded LEDs dealt with and resealed.
I've gone over a set used for the second time this year with a squirt of silicone oil in each LED sleeve - I'll report back on its effectiveness in January.
I tried oil before to see if it would wick in and seal, but it didn't work.
+bigclivedotcom I was hoping it might be water-repellent enough reduce the water getting in. Ah well.
Finally got around to inspecting them before packing away 'til December and not one of the 580 LEDs in three strings I had out showed any signs of corrosion this year.
One string was new, the other two have been up for a couple of years and have always needed some rework/repair.
So it looks like a good dousing of Lidl silicone oil does the trick.
Where I live, we currently have old US C9 strings (E17-base, multiple-wired), w/ retrofit LED bulbs, decorating all the trees around city hall.
I have seen the lights you showed at 4:30 before at JW - they have a socked (unfused) to connect more...
Just try to measure the resistance of those wires (and plug a heavy load or something for some fire fun)
To all recommendations Clive made I would also suggest using RCD switch (if it isnt already there). If anything happens, RCD might help to minimize the damage.
On George Square anything that could be reached by the public was RCD protected.
I think one of the commercial displays use some cheap lights to wrap around the tree trunks. Then, at the end of the season, they just use wire-cutters to remove them. Saves a lot on labor.
I'm envious of even your 'domestic' grade lights. In the US, the vast majority of consumer grade LED mini-lights available at retail are still made in the traditional miniature incandescent style, which is to say the diode sits in a polarized holder and is pressed into a socket base. Of course the diode leads are the same hair-thin, sometimes-plated copper as the miniature incandescents used, and corrode readily. This is what they sell us as 'outdoor' lighting. The only explanation I've ever got from distributors is that consumers have a strong preference for light strings with user serviceable lamps, even with multi-thousand hour rated LEDs.
in the USA our led Christmas lights are very different, most use traditional Christmas light style strings with the sockets for the mini bulbs
Could you possible do a teardown of the lights with the cling-film on the control box?
I'm a bit curious on what it is they are trying to hide. :)
It is me.
Clive, "domestic" is also used to mean "for home use" in the USA. We have domestic, then commercial, then industrial products. Getting more heavy duty as they go. Or sometimes just used as a marketing term. We would likely call those very beefy lights "industrial", and the slightly less beefy lights "commercial".
with the metal plates you reference being in the pack on the cable. it might just be to make it seem like a better quality unit or so that it keeps the cable straight. I've seen in some cheap electric lawnmowers they have had weights in them to make them seem heavier or better quality as people just seem to associate weight with quality...
I remember the macro shop suppliers used to sell some pretty good quality lights like the industrial ones you talked about, where you could join them together with different purchasable connectors and they were extremely well insulated (as in you could put them under the water without damage (and without swimming)). I have had those on the front of my house now for a good few years and they have been fine, yet the ones I got before them (which were rated for outdoor use but were like the cheap ones you described) corroded away and half of the chain (in a patchy pattern) ended up dead.
I do admit, I feel like emailing this video to my towns related bodies as the lights we have had in Southport in previous years have always seemed to be half dead. we used to have lights going all the way down the main entrance road from lamppost to lamppost, but they were always half dead and now they have just been removed entirely, leaving only cheapish looking white lights on the occasional trees.
Great video Clive - Thanks for the insight.
I've never seen any like that big heavy set. I hate to think what they'd cost but in a commercial setting totally worth it. America home of save a dime now pay a dollar later.
evening clive, I work on the water networks main across england however we do dabble with wales from time to time, The flowmeters which we install for the likes of Thames water are all Potted using polyurethane potting compound. Its the only way we can guarantee a fully water proof seal for an instrument that should last years taking millions of measurements.
Edit: The best thing about the polyurethane vs resin is the fact that its removable with everyone's favorite screwdriver the terminal driver. Meaning the instrument can be re used and re terminated.
I've used the two part gel stuff. Quite good and definitely seals out water.
I've been working non-stop since late October installing, troubleshooting and running a municipal Christmas lighting show, check Christmas In Color, Goodyear AZ
Looks good.
In continental Europe we use rope lights, they're 99% water proof.
We use rope light too. It's that 1% non-waterproof bit that's the problem. The newer LED stuff has that annoying thing of tracking internally if water gets in and blowing its rectifier, taking out everything on that circuit. Rope light will be getting its own video.
Kierone He's from the isle of man
"Continental Europe" is hardly a uniform bloc. Different towns in different regions of different countries use different things.
Poland is a nightmare with Christmas lights, at least in Warsaw they still use soviet time lights...
Any recommendations of suppliers of quality lights please Clive? I've done the cheap sets for the last two years but had enough this year so not bothered putting any up. I'm more of a do it right once/fit and forget person.
Firstly, I effing LOVE your videos!!! AvE, Julian and yourself are my absolute favorite 'engineering' folks (with Dave Jones being a bit down the list), the little bits of sarcasm I get from you are spectacular!
I also did want to point out that 'domestic' doesn't strictly mean 'national', it is a contextual thing, so when you are talking about LED's being strung up, it is understood that domestic means 'household' or 'consumer' use, but if you said, "Not manufactured domestically" it is implied that it means 'nationally'.
Just thought I would clear up some stupid American misunderstandings. lol I would also like to address the Aluminum/Aluminium mess, it actually comes down to Sir Humphry Davy not being able to make up his dang mind, and waffled between the two, by the time the 'new' name had made it over here, the former name had already been established... So I blame him for this mess! I could also refer to the whole Z/Zed mess, It can not be Zed, because you are using other letters to pronounce a letter, and that is not how letters work... lol ;-)
Be well, and thank you so very, very much for the videos!
Yesterday I set up our flagpole Christmas tree (from Fairybell) they are very nice but rather expensive. We also have some other lights and rectifiers from MK Illumination.
I'd love if you did a video showing off your personal Christmas light display.
Clockmakers clock.... I don't put up much because when you've spent months putting up council lights the desire to start again on your own home is low. But I'm thinking of doing something this year.
bigclivedotcom Have you got enough pink Christmas lights? Or will it be a basic warm white display?
Warm colours with maybe low level blue as a backdrop. It's going to be experimental. Pink or purple were considered, but this is a prototype so I want to use colours that are available in more industrial stuff.
Clive with all these Christmas lights do you decorate your house with them for Christmas? Would love to see a video on which lights you use for your tree & outdoor display :)
4468 Yes please, Clive you should show your garden
Possibly one of the few advantages of living Down Under - we can get away with non-Mains (solar) installations, and the problem of wicking corrosion doesn't exist - not much opportunity for water ingress when the daytime temp is in the mid-40's (Celsius), with a relative humidity approaching single figures! I'm still using "El Cheapo" Chinese LED solar lights I bought five years ago - a bit faded maybe, but they work just fine otherwise!
Do you happen to know what they use for the big "curtain" of lights above Royal Exchange Square? Is it just lots of individual strings or can you get some sort of prefabricated mesh arrangement?
If you look up at it you'll see that there are steel catenary support wires strung across and the lights themselves are the type I mentioned with the bus-bar strip and lots of individual strings. Where the strings are too long you may see them rolled up into balls at the end of each run.
The strings are tied across one or two at a time. It's very time consuming.
Good advice, safety first.
I just replaced a set of those cheapo lights that had been outdoors for three Christmas seasons. The translucent plastic had gone all brown, and the diode legs rusty. The first set of 8 LEDs no longer light up.
I noticed you didn't touch on the topic of AC vs DC transformers and flicker. AvE did an interesting video on his channel a while back, where his small daughter was reading a book under an AC set, which flashed like a disco strobe in slow motion.
great video big clive! thanks for all your time & effort put into this video, it was really informative. ;)
A few years ago i was fortunate enough to find a long string of professional Christmas lights being sold in a charity shop for only £10 and i snatched them up. :) They are so sturdy and reliable!
Can you please recommend some good online British suppliers of professional / municipal Christmas lights?
Many Thanks and Happy Holidays! :)
We never did the outside lights when I was a kid, but we did have a lighted tree every year. Only problem was my mom would just stuff all the lights in a box in the attic after Christmas. Invariably the stress of being untangled by a couple of lazy kids the next year destroyed the lights. So we'd chuck them and go pick up another set of the cheapest lights we could find at the dollar store.
Hehe, made a few trees this year at work. I have some pockets for pens on my arm that are the perfect zip tie holder.
hi clive
another excellent video
keep up the great work
Awesome work ! Where could one attempt to buy the rugged sets ?
Strange to see heat shrink on mains Christmas lights. All the ones i have seen are molded plastic.
As far as I can remember the switch to heat shrink happened when the mass produced LED strings came along.
I still have some 15 Volt carbon filament Christmas lights which are in a series string of 9 bulb sockets using OLD cloth insulation on the wires. They are close to 100 years old and haven't burnt out, but they do get HOT!!! Especially the dark blue painted bulb. The bulbs are each painted a different color and are about one inch sphere with a little 'tit' where they were evacuated.
Also have 15 Volt tungsten filament Christmas lights in series strings of 9 bulb sockets with newer cloth insulation on the wires. They are from the 1950s. Some of the bulbs are conventional shape, but others are bubble lights using methyl chloride fill. They get pretty hot too. But don't hold a candle to the carbon filament bulbs.
Christmas light safety and fire prevention has come a long way
Treasure those. I wish now that I'd kept some of the older figural lamps from the past, and bought the ones that appeared in junk markets. You can fit new miniature lamps internally in some of them.
i have a set of tungsten filament tree lights with rubber coated wires from the late 30s or early 40s, must have been super luxurious state of the art stuff back in those days, those bulbs also get hot as hell but pretty much all of the original bulbs still work
Here in the states we too use the term "domestic" to mean the "private home" as well as the "homeland" and it's usually completely apparent based on the context.
Here in Australia, the Christmas lights need to survive 40 degree heat and extreme UV levels. And rogue koalas.
And drop bears.
bigclivedotcom Drop bears are the worst!
might have to add squirrels to that list :P oh yeah fried squirrel oh sure. Koalas probably have the same sort of teeth.
Dont drop beers !
because you not only drive on the wrong side of the road but also celebrate Christmas in the summer. you are even worse than the British ;) and I haven't even mentioned walking upside down. ;)
The main issue I have with LED christmas lights is really just light color. We live in a flat and don't have any lights outside, but we have a rather nice "curtain" of around 220 tungsten lights in front of our living room window and ever since they banned tungsten bulbs we've been trying to find a suitable LED replacement. I know good golden white LEDs exist, I've seen them many years ago already when LED christmas lights weren't really a big thing yet. But for some reason practically every manufacturer uses really cheap LEDs, they look just terrible, either greenish or magenta, not yellow enough or just plain monochromatic orange... I doubt I'll find a good LED curtain, maybe I'll zig-zag a 50m string in front of the window. But finding one with acceptable light color seems impossible.
Apart from that, is it just me who really can't deal with flickering lights? I can always just whack a cap into the christmas lights but I think I shouldn't have to. But apparently people don't mind.
I have one of those cheap strings that can blink by switching polarity, half "warm" white, half red and orange. The controller made a horrible 1 kHz sound the whole time and most white strings are dead by now. I suppose the while LEDs just couldn't take the switching or maybe they were driven quite hard who knows. They shouldn't have started dying like flies after just a few weeks.
It's just, even though tungsten lights are banned and the industry switched over to LED, I don't see commercially available LED lights as a suitable replacement so I ended up buying replacement tungsten bulbs on ebay.
Streamtronics tungsten bulbs haven't been banned for Christmas lights. You can still get new strings of them. Lowe's has them, for example. The only required standard for lighting is an energy consumption standard for regular household bulbs, and it's not even all that strict. Halogen bulbs meet it just fine. But Christmas lights are in the "specialty" category, which is exempt from the standard. However, LED lights are popular right now, so most stores have chosen to mostly stock those. Lowe's and Target have them. They're just sort of off to the side as an afterthought.
Then again, there's quality LED sets available that don't flicker and have similar color to incandescent bulbs.
I have gone the other way this year. Got fed up with the expensive ones not lasting out side very well so I got cheap one's and removed the 24 volt transformer and replaced it with a 12 to 24 volt DC to DC converter and running them from 12 volt lead acid batteries which has done away with the need of waterproof extension leads. if they only last 2 years it is still cheaper than as the expensive ones were failing after about 3 years and cost 5 times as much.
I think the North American equivalent word to domestic for you would be consumer, if something is consumer grade its targeted at the home gamer, and industrial would be business and industry. Regardless of vocabulary love your videos, hope you keep up these videos.
Haha, i didn't think that was actually a mouthful of cable ties, I thought someone just drew like a tiny mustache over the beard for the laugh
Always wondered about the British to the mains connector (from Canada here), the Black painting on the prongs is non-conductive paint so as you are plugging it in the chance of being shocked is minimal? If so that sounds extremely reasonable.
side note: as someone getting into working live shows, you've actually helped me understand somethings. thanks eh?
It's a moulded section of plastic. The pins don't make contact until that is fully shielding them from touch.
I have professional grade lights around my house and just finished replacing the system with LED ones. The previous sets were incandescent and lasted around 6-8 seasons before big areas went dark. The lifetime of those was said to be 10K hours, and the new LED ones are rated at 40K hours. Will they last 24-32 years? Who knows, but I hope they are of the same quality.
Wish low voltage LED would become more popular in the US. They are too expensive over here to purchase when buying them for Christmas. Even then, most times they use high voltage LEDs. With low voltage LEDs cost lowering every year though, it will be great to replace all my lighting and eventually save on power costs. Only issue with the LED ones if an LED burns out, replacing them is a pain.
I don't know if you're trolling or serious, but how would this save any appreciable amount on your power bill? And how often do you have an LED burn out in relation to failure due to corrosion or wire fatigue?
Our lights = Tank
Their lights = Wet cardboard
(I'm Canadian)
I wonder how US light sets stack up to these
I don't know if this is regional but most of the lights ive seen in the US have been socket based even with LED bulbs.
Ten years ago, my father acquired the Christmas lights from Birmingham cathedral. They ran off a 240-110v site transformer that had been painted purple and took lorry bulbs, they were a single cable with 1" globes every foot or so. Although they looked good, they were a F#CKING nightmare to work with.
Since then we have upgraded to the "industrial" daisy-chain style White LED lights.
I have one of those "safe" AC ones that cost 5 buck, years ago... (They needed to be repaired though, because a resistor died in them and all they did was shimmer)
Those that I bought here in the EU have some siliconish glue in between the LED and the heatshrink....
there is such a thing as lined heatshrink, has a glue liner that melts at the same time, im sure they try to improve the leakage issues
jusb1066 yep, thats probably such a product, maybe with a bit more glue than usual. Works pretty fine, three years and no signs of rust or anything. Probably UV is the biggest problem now.
+jusb1066 You'll find it on eBay if you search for "marine shrink tubing". If you start poking about in the solar PV equipment area it'll start showing up in your recommended items. Waterproofing is what it is all about.
I have some lights that are wired in 2 pairs of 100 in series, the power supply is just a bridge rectifier and the output is 325V DC, not the safest kind of lights...
If you kluge together strings of water-proof-ish RGB lights, you could select the color you'd want of each string... which begs the question: If you mix RGB lights with CMYK lights, will they cancel each other out?
A bit like if you combine black lights with white lights.
excellent video. one of your best!
How do these stand up to squirrels? I've been unable to keep a tree in the garden lit (C7 tungsten FWIW) due to squirrels chewing the wiring.
The only wiring problem we had on George Square was rats chewing our data cables.
Hacker rats.
Use higher voltage lights. They'll learn.
I'd like to know why all domestic lights have the same basic 8 function controllers - is there a reason that they don't do domestic sets of static lights with the occasional strobing LED every 5 or 6 lights like is so popular in municipal sets?
*Good video!*
Holy crap, that plug is HUGE! How do you deal with cramped spaces behind things when you're plugging things into the wall that are the size of a small literal brick?
The wire comes out at the bottom and the plug itself can be fairly thin. I'd ask the same question, how do you put things in a cramped space where the wire comes straight out?
Paul Sengupta We have extension cords that are designed for that. The plugs are about the size of an American quarter and about a quarter inch thick.
Also, bear in mind that most of those plugs have got the power supply electronics built in.
The reliability of the cheap lights could be improved by using adhesive lined heatshrink. The hot melt glue would make them less prone to water ingress. Slightly more expensive than plain heatshrink but cheaper than the resin sealed professional lights.
I have some commercial injection molded LED string lights that run on 120 VAC strings, these have rectifiers built into the strings. These "good" strings are getting harder to find. These strings are water proof.
I really should figure out why my string of solar lights don't work properly. It's something like 100 lights, running from a small panel and 2x AD NiCad batteries. Needless to say, they only light about half way along then fade out. More volts, but I've no idea how many volts I need!
We picked up a spotlight type device that shoots patterns onto our house, its all black, and has that exact plug, i'm thinking they're from the same company.
Thats called a projector
+bigclivedotcom Why are 4 channel multi-function lights so rare nowadays, is it purely a cost thing? I miss having lights where only 1 of the 4 colours would be on at a time!
It's a cost saving thing. Especially with the new sets that save even more wire by reversing the polarity to control two sets of lights on just two wires.
For outside lights, I just daisy chain indoor lights with insulating tape, on the plus side we never have to buy a bird for xmas dinner..
i suddenly find it odd that you see almost exclusive use of tungsten christmas lights in the US. (well in Californial at least) ive never even seen this type of christmas light before.
Surprises me about California, as if anywhere is trying to go green, it's usually California!
That is just a really cool story.
If they used the heavier heat-shrink with the waterproofing mastic in it would that not make the strings a lot safer?
But Yes I do it would cost $0.10 USD more.
clive, i have a metal snowman frame with rope lights pre ziptied on, but a section of the rope lights are off and then after that section the rope lights work again. Why is this and why do the rope lights work after a section of them dont work? thanks
It uses a parallel bus of power sires and separate strings of LEDs internally. You can fit a new section using a spike and sleeve system, but it may be hard finding the exact material to use. I'll be covering rope light in a different video.
okay, thanks :D
bigclivedotcom I fixed a 30 meter rope light by cutting the bad sections and sodering it again. It's 26 meters only but it works!
Thanks for your tutorial on how to stop christmas lights flashing, I opened up three boxes from curtain LED lights that flashed out of sync and they look a lot better when steady on. I just cut the box from the rope light and sodered the wires together since it's mains powered, not like the curtains.
Maybe you would know the answer to this question, Clive: ... Would you know why many towns, just use white Lights at Christmas, instead of say, Green and Red? I'm only asking as you mentioned 3 different types of white for Glasgow, so wondered if you knew. :)
Thanks for another fantastic upload! :)
It's partly "designer" and partly to reduce the need to stock more than two colours of spare material. In George Square's previous lights I introduced as much colour as possible because I regard Xmas lights as being for the kids more than the adults.
i think that cold white leds are the best. my city has bright blue flashing christmas tree though
Yes they are more expensive but as you point out it's worth it. Typical home lights are (2016) about US$4 per string, while a "commercial" lighting set is $15 for 50 feet.
I work in a hardware store chain in Norway, and we've sold 240V mains LED strings of the "municipal" quality for a few years now. They're super robust and pretty much never fail, except for the rectifier box. They were potted using hard plastic around a hollow plastic box containing the circuit, but with HR05N rubbertype cable it didn't seal properly so water leaked in, and with ~325V DC they pretty much corroded to hell instantly.. I sent a nuclear email to the producer last year and said THIS is what you're doing wrong, and this is what you're going to do. They did everything I said, and now we've had 3 complaints for about 1000 strings sold this year in my store. Super robust and extendable to 3200 lights or about 320 meters. The hookup cables with the rectifiers literally contains a 3A fuse and 4x 1N5408 diodes. Super simple, robust, and works year after year.
All the complained strings last year were fine except the rectifiers, so I have a pile myself and the store have about 200m outside for display. It's weird looking at my house and knowing that there's about 240W of LED strings. Or give or take 300m. That one bush is pretty well covered.
The "heavy duty" lights are worth every penny spent. They're about twice as expensive as the cheapie thin ones, but works ten times longer and ten times better. Nothing to complain about.
Can you show us a photo of your house? :-)
A few times now I have gone to a local retail store to look for lights and give up after finding only cruddy ones that are poorly made, half-wave rectified, and/or a poor color. Then, as I am leaving, I notice nicely-colored, non-flickering, well-made ones installed on the trees right outside!
How much of a premium do the professional ones normally go for?
When I put cable ties in my mouth I get a headache, and they don't taste to nice ether.
You gotta stop buying your cable ties on ebay...
In America, domestic means made in America (so, eg, domestic car) or it can mean in the home. It just depends on context. So describing lights as domestic vs municipal is totally fine, but you could also describe them as domestic vs foreign. Either way is understandable and normal in American English. You just have to make it clear which way you're using it.
my stepdad has a set with concave large leds with thick wires and they go around the guttering i think the led size was 10mm and it had 1000s probably 500w worth i think
they are so bright it lights the perimeter around the house the color was deep blue
as he dose a Christmas charity and runs as much lights as possible and once he blew the main transformer that feeds the farm then he had to replace it which wasn't cheap lol . then he got a large 50kw generator to run most of the Christmas lights
and im not bullshitting the pole transformer went with a loud bang
in other words he has a field full of Christmas lights
Do you think that dipping the heatshrunk LEDs of the domestic versions in hot glue would help in any way to make them close to suitable for repeated home outdoor use? Or would UV radiation make the glue or the actual cable brittle and unreliable in the near future?
I bought some Chinese LEDs that look like the cheap ones you have there. They lasted about 2 weeks in our sub 0c snowy weather. Lesson learned, however the I noticed the US wire and LED connections are very different and a lot heavier. Have you worked with the US style wire and connections? If not can I send you some when I get some cash?
What a great video!! All mine are nice full wave rectified and 31 volts this year, they even have that same connector that is screwed in like yours. previous years they all seemed to be 24v with a connector like what a laptop has why is that? Is that screw in connector a standard I have seen it in lights that can be connected together in a string?
The best technique for handling cable ties is still sacrificing one of them and strap them to your belt
Would those aluminium plates in the power supply be for magnetic suppression?
The outdoor Ikea lights seem ok, had some for a few years and they haven't failed yet (well the set that just has LED's attached like an IDC connector to a thickish flat white flex @3v some of them have failed and so they are not used anymore), Have an Icicle that runs at 12V and some colour changing stars and some of the other Kilometer sets which have removable lamp covers and they sell different styles of replacement covers.
The outside ones have the great advantage that they use the waterproof (although I believe only IP44) inline PSU (Transformer based on the older ones and switching on the newer) so you can use them in outside sockets without a problem. There are no other electronics and the colour changing ones just use colour changing LED'S
If I could find them I would happily send you the partially failed set as I really have no use for them anymore.
Your beard is also a great place to store zip ties for future use.
My colleagues at the Edinburgh Tattoo have a game where they put cable ties into my beard if I fall asleep.
bigclivedotcom I bet you don't notice for hours 🙂