Christmas Tree Lights

Forty years ago most households lit up their Christmas trees by using large incandescent bulbs. These are the same types of bulbs you still find in night lights. These incandescent Christmas tree lights were found to use too much electrical power. A single strand could use 250 watts of power. Most people were using three to five strands, making this a real electrical guzzler.

These older Christmas tree lights not only ran up the electrical bill but gave off extreme heat. The bulbs were found to be so hot they could cause items set in close contact to melt. There was a great fire hazard using these bulbs. A small set of bulbs were very expensive, making these lights a thing of the past. The only real advantage of these Christmas tree lights were the way they were strung together. Since the wiring of the bulbs was arranged in a parallel line, one burned out bulb would not impact the whole string.

IN the late 1970's mini Christmas tree lights were introduced. They are now the best selling Christmas lights on the market. These lights have tiny incandescent bulbs that use only 2.5 volts of energy. Originally, these tiny bulbs had to come in strands of 48. Totaled, this would equal 120 volts which is the normal house current voltage. Today most sets of mini lights have 50 bulbs just to round out the number. This dims the lights slightly. Mini lights are wired differently than the older larger bulbed sets. With mini lights, if you remove a bulb, it breaks up the line and the whole strand will go out. Replacing your burned out bulb will light up the whole strand again.

There are also blinking Christmas tree lights. One type uses a special blinker bulb. Placed into any position within the strand, it will make all of the lights in the strand blink. This special bulb reacts to heat. When it becomes too hot, the lights go off and lights back up when it cools off. This happens quickly and affects the whole strand of lights.