LED Christmas Lights

[petitepedal]

Worth the cost or not?  We had some here that only lasted about 3 years...Oh and the strings are shorter?

 

I gotta get lights for the building...tons and tons of lights

[jsharr]

there is a hardware store here that will custom cut bulb wire for you.  Elinates all the plugs, etc.

 

You might see if anyone around there does that.

 

I just like the look of the big C7 bulbs.

[kingtermite]

Christmas lights are NEVER worth it. Unless they are the ones I bought last year (first  EVER Christmas lights I bought).

 

[Mr. Silly]

Can you put off buying the lights until January?  You get a better price.

[JerrySTL]

LEDs are much better than incandescent bulbs. They last longer. However most still fit in the same type of socket and can come loose.

 

As for finding burnt-out or loose bulbs - no matter the type - you can't beat having a non-contact voltage tester:

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/non-contact-voltage-tester-97218.html

[Olas Nah]

If you're shooting for a certain physical size of light, go for one a bit smaller. They are super bright compared to the older bulbs. I got some that were about the size of the old C2 (large glowy ones that people were fond of back in the early 80's), and it looked like I had a police car lodged in my tree. The blue bulbs especially shine like small neutron stars....They really do put out an insane amount of light from a pinpoint source.

[petitepedal]

Got 4800 mini white lights...standard not LED and 600 multi colored LEDs...so far...need to figure out how many more we need.

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

Compare the wire, sockets, and plugs of the LED light strings to the standard light strings.  All the manufacturers of LED brag about how long they last but don't mention anything about improving the durability of the rest of the product to match that lifetime.

 

If the wire, sockets, and plugs of the LED strings look like they're made of pretty much the same stuff as the standard string and you have to pay significantly more for the LED's, then buy the standard string. 

 

Odds are the 'string' will fail long before the LED's burn out, and then you're stuck with a string of lights you can't fix and that you paid a premium for.

 

If the LED lights strings are very nearly the cost of the standard string, then of course buy the LED's, because until the 'string' eventually fails you won't have to replace any bulbs.

[Ralphie]

Everything is LEDs these days (your welcome, jsharr )

 

I was struck by that thought on the Jersey Turnpike, as I noticed all the fancy new cars with their wild tail light designs, especially the high zoot German ones.  It is like the 50s all over again, with LEDs as tail fins.