F.cking Xmas Tree Lights!!!

[Alarm]

You could be right, even his daughter fixed them.

 

[Space cat]

I dont think you can even buy a plain, bog-standard set of 20 mains voltage lights anymore.

ASDA are selling strings of 40 mains-powered lights this year but there's a lot less choice than there used to be. If the wattage had been correct I would've bought a set just to get spares for a large garland that uses 6V bulbs. (It's the current that matters in a series string. I need 120 mA bulbs but these were only 66 mA. I'm sorely tempted to put two in parallel. )

I remember a time when you could have any coloured LED you liked as long as it was red - and they were a terrible price too. Now that all colours are readily available and cheap, I expect that they'll take over from filament bulbs but, for the time being at least, the ritual of swapping bulbs around is still one of the joys of Christmas.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm probably tempting fate here, but I've had a LV filament set of tree lights (3 x 80 in parallel/series) for so long I've forgotten how long - never had a problem. The lamps are the type which fail to a short so you never get a section going out.

 

[Space cat]

The lamps are the type which fail to a short so you never get a section going out.

That's quite common these days and it's certainly eased the problem of finding the duff bulb in a long string. The down side is that you have to be on the ball because each failed bulb throws extra voltage across the remaining ones.

Incidentally, has anybody else noticed this or is it just my bad luck? At midnight on January 5th, you switch off a string of lights that's worked for many hours - if not days - without a hitch and pack them away for next year. There was nothing wrong with them when you took them down and they've lain undisturbed on the highest shelf in the wardrobe ever since. So why is it that so many bulbs fail at first switch-on next Christmas?

 

[Alarm]

Get LED`s lol.
Saying that two sets are bulbs and are fine and have been for years now.
Getting bored of the blue neons now.

 

[mattylad]

Get an axmas tree that has the lights pre installed onto it.

Less hassle, they just seem to work every time.

 

[Alarm]

Sod that, my tree and lights are now 12 yrs old.
Fell into the trap of some LED`s, yep blue ones. Hate em!
Same as all the control panels now with blue backlighting, great. Until you realise its no good for people with poor eye sight.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

 

[Alarm]

I know BAS, hence the LED`s. The things are only on for a short while anyway and nothing is ever left on overnight or when out.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Keeping the tree watered is also good - we have ours in a bucket-sized container filled with large pebbles and water it every day - it's amazing how much it gets through even with no roots.

 

[Alarm]

If mine drinks water i`m onto a miracle, did you miss this bit

my tree and lights are now 12 yrs old.

.....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Apparently....

 

[17thman]

how many years do you need to own and use an artificial tree to use less carbon than using a real one each year?

Maybe 10 years or so.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Never, would be my guess.

As long as you don't burn the tree when you've finished with it using real ones is beneficial - young, fast growing trees absorb a lot of carbon dioxide.

 

[JohnW2]

As long as you don't burn the tree when you've finished with it using real ones is beneficial - young, fast growing trees absorb a lot of carbon dioxide.

Whilst I agree with the second part, the first isn't quite so straightforward. Even if you don't burn it "when you've finished with it", do you know of any 'normal' way of getting rid of it (other than sealing it up in an airtight container for evermore!) which won't result in CO2 and/or methane being released into the atmosphere?- I certainly don't. The answer, surely, is to us a live tree, which can then be planted outside and carry on using up CO2 for the rest of its natural life?

Kind Regards, John.