Christmas lights.. aargh near disaster

[Adam_151]

Yeh granted it is hard to prevent this but it really amazes me that they have allowed lights like this to be put on sale in the first place.

Because thats how tree lights developed, and the reality is that they don't cause enough incidents to warrent a ban...

Perhaps if someone wanted to introduce them today... someone might come along and say "wait a moment...", but then the same is most likely true of telefunken (figure power cords, IEC320 (kettle) connectors and lamp holders

 

[blacksheep]

Interestingly to get behind my xmas tree you are up against a large radiator, this is still painted though so.. ??

So are the older in-series lights still available new now?

 

[Steve]

My Grandad has a set of lights, with braided cotton leads and 32 (ish) volt screw in lamps. Until recently, he had nicely shaped lamps in it, like snowmen shaped and santa shaped etc. Sadly they are no longer available in those shapes, so he has had to get replacements in the form of 35 volt plain coloured lamps (designed for some other purpose). Spoils the magic somewhat, but he refuses to get rid of them. Never caused any accidents.

You'll struggle to find any plain bog standard 20-light mains voltage lights anymore (with 20 12v lamps).

In fact, now I think on, I didn't see any spare lamps on sale anywhere this year. We had a set of random-twinkle lights, which had 4 circuits with a master bulb that set the twinkling. Boots stopped selling the lamps a few years ago.

Most sets for sale nowadays have the lamps attached permenantly, so changing the lamps is not an option. It also seems once the lamps have blown, the circuit they are on also goes out! Even the older sets of lamps had a link in each bulb so when it blew, the rest of the circuit stayed on! I guess this is a money-making thing - so you have to buy a new set of lights each year!

 

[aptsys]

Not all LED sets are ELV. I have two sets that are mains from the output of the controller and appear to be four strings of 60 LEDs with occasional current limiting resistors.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not if I do it in 16 lamp runs. You have been able to get them for years, but they cost more.

Never seen them, but then I've only bought a set once, and they are still going strong, despite Steve's doom'n'gloom (they're old enough, probably, to pre-date the sets made to last 1 year). The lamps are replaceable, and AFAIR I've replaced 1 or 2 in 20-odd years.

But you're right - several 16-lamp sets in parallel on a 48V supply would work a treat. The current would be less in each set than the 80-lamp LV sets, so the cables could be thinner (both core & insulation) and no matter how many sets you had daisy-chained there would never be more than 3 cables physically paralleled.

In fact the only drawback I can see is that with fail-close lamps the voltage across the remaining ones would increase considerably more than it would when 1 out of 80 fails....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yeh granted it is hard to prevent this but it really amazes me that they have allowed lights like this to be put on sale in the first place.

Because thats how tree lights developed, and the reality is that they don't cause enough incidents to warrent a ban.

And anything would be better than candles clipped to a tinder-dry fir tree...

 

[Steve]

And anything would be better than candles clipped to a tinder-dry fir tree...

Why? what could possibly go wrong???

 

[Lectrician]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o2dNN2waoSw&feature=related

 

[First-time-buyer]

There is a easy fix for this.

Ditch the christmas lights, and get a fibre-optic tree.

 

[breezer]

sorry for my ignorance but could some one explain this.

its not a tree, its a kettle and its just boiled. the baby wants to go skipping and that white thing looks about right , lets pull it and........................

my point is, (and this is what i dont understand) a baby has no understanding of most things, so should the baby never be left alone?

or suppose the baby wants to climb the tree, you and i know you cant....

same thing isnt it?, in both cases the baby was left on its own, so why not just watch the baby? (i know its easier said than done, but.....)

and worrying about an RCD on the christmas lights where will it stop, onme on the tv, one on a hairdryer etc?

oh, burning tree vid was a set up.

crimbo lights dont get hot enough to cause ignition

 

[ban-all-sheds]

My favourite variety of tree is the Scots Pine - they look good (but can be a bit sparse - you need to choose carefully) and suffer very little needle drop.

Don't know the fibre-optic tree - is it a pine or a fir?

It's not mentioned here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine

or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fir

 

[Steve]

crimbo lights dont get hot enough to cause ignition

Bought a "pre decorated" tree from B&Q a few years ago. Opened the box and to our disappointment you actually had to decorate it yourself. ANYWAY!

It came with a set of lights. 40 white lights IIRC. We decorated the tree, wrapped the lights round it, all ok. A few hours later, I noticed the lights seemed a very bright (and very hot). I took them off the tree and to my amazement only about half of them were still lit

What I want to know, is at what point does the fuse bulb stop this? This is what it is there for, but it clearly had no effect here.

I know that as each bulb blows, the voltage across the remaining bulbs increases, so if half the bulbs had blown, there would be 12v across each bulb, designed for 6 volts.

Anyway B&Q let us exchange for another set of lights off the shelf.

 

[blacksheep]

my point is, (and this is what i dont understand) a baby has no understanding of most things, so should the baby never be left alone?
or suppose the baby wants to climb the tree, you and i know you cant....
same thing isnt it?, in both cases the baby was left on its own, so why not just watch the baby? (i know its easier said than done, but.....)

Of course the baby gets watched, but most 2yr olds will be left in a room on their own for sometime, and as its so easy for this simple thing to occur.

and worrying about an RCD on the christmas lights where will it stop, onme on the tv, one on a hairdryer etc?

Hmm.. considering what happened in this case Id recommend everyone takes precautions! I never thought a baby would go over and bite a bulb but I didnt see this, other kids would of done this sometime!
so if I left the hairdryer in the room how would she get electrocuted/burnt etc,? Yeh she could turn the thing on, even tip some of her bottle on it but all this would take time and is not likely to cause problems and you'd hear the thing.
TV - How is this a problem?? Chuck a bucket of water over it, chew the **** out of the mains lead?

If you ask me you are being ignorant here and your missing the point. Xmas lights provide a very quick way to walk up to them, stick them in their mouth and bite. This can happen very quickly and is not an obvious problem to most . Even poking a piece of metal in the mains socket takes longer!

Im sure there are more hazards around the house, the other day my brother in laws son burnt his hand by trying to take the bulb out of a desk lamp! Mind you he is probably better there was a bulb in the holder!! Another risk..

What I want to know, is at what point does the fuse bulb stop this? This is what it is there for, but it clearly had no effect here.

Not sure exactly how the wire-bridge works when a bulb blows, but id say they would just burn brighter and burnout quicker!. If that many were removed eventually the voltage would be high enough that all the bulbs would quickly blow.

Probably the aerosol snow spray would touch the bulbs, that are now operating at over twice the rated voltage, and just go up in flames but as it is unlikely to have this many bulbs missing/blown they didnt bother with a ban on them! Whats the odd fire anyway