You will not have missed that the holiday season is officially upon us if you have gone into any department store lately. When many people take the time to decorate their homes with Christmas décor is traditionally done over Thanksgiving weekend, but it can happen any time after when people find the time. Whether indoor or outdoor décor, anyone can be decorating from now until December 24th, often the Christmas lights are strung. In order to safely string lights together, we at Burley Electrical Services would like to take the opportunity to share a few recommendations. You need to make sure you know which type of lights you are doing, both LED lights and incandescent lights have their own specs.
Incandescent Christmas Lights
Incandescent strings are a less expensive option for holiday lights. The comparable length of incandescent string lights consumes 1,925-watts, making each string requiring its own outlet. For the season, the operating cost is estimated at around 50$. First determine how many strands of Christmas lights you can safely string together so you can avoid blowing circuit breakers or in-line fuses. With the help of these holiday string light safety lights, no matter which light bulbs style, it can be less risky.
LED Christmas String Lights
Though LED lights initially cost more, they aren’t expensive to run. Also, you can connect 265-feet of strands together only using 38-watts and could be plugged into a single outlet.
Calculate Maximum Electrical Load
To begin, arrange the circuit or circuits the holiday lights will be plugged into. Take note on whether it is a 15 or 20-amp circuit after finding the breaker on your home’s electrical box. You should never exceed more than 80% of circuit capacity no matter which style of lights you decide on. You can avoid electrical fires as well as overheating and tripped breakers.
Know What Else is Running on that Circuit
From lighting to appliances, any other items running on that same circuit all contribute to 80% max circuit load. You can make the math simpler and reduce the need for extension cords by letting you install as many outlets as you need. Installing a separate, dedicated circuit for holiday lights is best.
How Many Watts Will Christmas Lights Use?
You can limit the need for brain-melting holiday math endeavors since with the UL, the math done. Being either on the box or cord’s tag, the label indicates the number of lights that can be safely strung together frequently. Be sure to not exceed a maximum of 210-watts according to the UL tags, although the LED lights don’t have this issue being that they use less energy. You simply divide 210 by the number of watts of each string to get the number of strings you can connect together safely per outlet. A 20-watt strand, that’s 10.5 string lights connected in series should not exceed maximum wattage, 1,440/1,920 for instance.
Electrical Wiring & More in Pompano Beach, Imperial Point, Plantation, Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Davie, Lighthouse Point, Parkland & Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Call Burley Electric Services and let our expert electricians get it done quickly, efficiently, and most importantly, safely to install a dedicated circuit and additional outlets to ensure your Christmas lights are done to safely to the max.
