Replacements Bulbs for Christmas lights

[dennohue]

With the advent of LEDs many of the older Christmas light sets become redundant as replacement bulbs become impossible to find.

I am sure there are many people like me who have a treasured set that needs just one new bulb to bring it back to lfe.

Does anyone know of a website that still stocks these items? TIA.

 

[Chri5]

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Xmas_Lights/Xmas_Spare_Lamps/index.html

or try Maplins

Happy Christmas

 

[Steve]

The old myth that if one lamp blows, the whole lot will go out, is old. For a long time now, the lamps have had a "secondary" link which completes the circuit when the filament breaks, thus making the broken lamp easy to find.

Clearly a concern here was that after so many lamps blow, because they are in series, the voltage and current across the individual lamps will become too great, and they will all start blowing quicker until there are no lamps left. To combat this, fuse lamps were developed. Fuse lamps have a slightly higher-rated filament than normal lamps, and will blow when too much current tries to flow. They do not have a secondary link.

Though I did call into question the effectiveness of this system a few years ago.We bought a new set of lights, of this type from B&Q about 3 years ago. On getting the set home, and running the lights for a few hours, it was apparent that we had a faulty set, as about a quarter of the lamps had blown in no time. After a while longer, about half of the lights were out (it was a 40 light set). The fuse lamp failed to operate, despite the operating tolerances of its spec being far exceeded. I didnt leave them plugged in any longer, since the lamps were getting very hot.
______________________________________________________________


Nowadays, the sets are made very cheaply, even filament sets dont have replaceable lamps, and they dont (in my experience) have secondary links, so once a lamp blows, its circuit is dead for good (no good when you are trying to create a pattern, or its those "snow" effect lights).

LED lamps are the way forward. Though B&Q seem to have excessive stock of old filament lights from last year, reduced to clear.

 

[olly_k]

LED lamps are the way forward.

This is obvious but personally I do not like led lights for some reason - I certainly hate the way a few sets flicker at high frequency, I assume PWM driven

There are some filament sets, normally more expensive ones (NOT transformer sets) that look lovely and are currently unmatched by anything similar - just the quality of paint that sets them apart they look a lot more traditional!

I also hate people who have constantly flashing light sets too.. So f****** annoying and pointless

 

[nozspark]

I find the taht the best thing to do is buy a few packs of spare lamps when you buy the set... then you should at least get a few years out of them!!

Is it really worth the hassle,, just get a new set (& spare lamps)!

 

[Steve]

LED lamps are the way forward.

This is obvious but personally I do not like led lights for some reason - I certainly hate the way a few sets flicker at high frequency, I assume PWM driven

Totally agree. When you go to a shopping centre, look up at their Christmas lighting rigs. If theres a large number of LED lights, you can normally see them all flickering, because theres so many of them. Whereas one lamp, or even just one set in isolation would be unnoticable.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I find the taht the best thing to do is buy a few packs of spare lamps when you buy the set... then you should at least get a few years out of them!

Another wheeze is to buy 2 sets, and take part of one set and add it to the other, so that all the lamps are under-voltage. Last much longer, you've got loads of spares, and they actually look better when a bit dimmer and slightly yellow-tinged.

 

[ChrisJ78]

Make sure you check for broken bulbs before plugging the things in too. Wifey tonight OWWWWWW. Only touched the filaments of a broken bulb tonight while they were plugged in