Outside Christmas LED Lights -- dull and weak....

[James]

Ok, so this year I went out to buy some more outside Christmas lights. Much to my surprise, I could not find any REAL lights, just the fake led lights. I looked at all the big box stores, including Lowe's, Home Depot, and Target. All I could find was the fake led lights.

So, I bought a set of led lights strings with C7 led lights. 50 lights on a string, total wattage of 3.7 watts. They say these are much cheaper to run because of the low wattage. But, I have seen that you get what you pay for. These lights are dull and weak looking.

Does anyone here know of any store that still sells real outside Christmas lights, or have they all been outlawed too ?

Thanks for any info on where I can purchase non-fake Christmas lights !!

James

[RBM]

How can you even think about using real Christmas tree lights, when some kid in Nigeria is starving because of the global warming you have caused using them. Thank God our government has better sense than you do, and seen fit to outlaw all non energy saving light bulbs. Oh, wait a minute, there is no actual global warming, and they're going to repeal that bill? OK, never mind, Merry Christmas

[Frank]

Moron.

[James]

RBM, you are an idiot. Christmas lights have nothing to do with starving kids in Nigeria. If you really think that is true, you are a blooming idiot !!

AND, I don't need Al Gore to tell me how bright my Christmas lights should be, or how many gallons of water that I use to flush my crap, another bright (dim) idea from your idol.

Get a life.

James

[Brooklyn1]

The ONLY reason some kid in Nigeria is starving is because its moron mommy didn't have the sense to keep her legs closed.

[cshenk]

"James" wrote

It's called satire James.

[krw]

I bought a set of LED strings for the outside, a couple of years ago (~1400 lights). They were so ugly I threw them out when I took them down that year and replaced them with real lights (after Christmas sales) for the next year. I just put up about half of them yesterday (waiting for it to get a little warmer to finish the job).

[Jeff Thies]

Large lights have been out of vogue for a while, everyone waned the minis. The imitation C& and such is all you will commonly find at the big box.

Try online or a hardware store like Ace:

Jeff

[James]

Will look at Ace Hardware... had not thought of that...

thanks

James

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I have some of those, and even some C9 LED ones. They have plastic shells, which contain the same single LED as the miniature ones. They aren't very bright, although the color is good.

The wal-mart here seems to have plenty of REAL C7 and C9 lights (unless they've sold out by now).

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Are you thinking of the ones that are white, rather than the yellow of incansescents?

For normal single colors (like red, green, and blue), LEDs have better color. It's more intense and doesn't fade (since the light IS that color, rather than depending on a coating).

BTW, we need more colored lights out, instead of just those boring "white" ones.

[Dan L]

Fake lights? Are those the kind of lights do not work? Like fake security cameras? Like fake plants?

Well try this web site -

Christmas from an Atheist :)

[JIMMIE]

Dont know if its the same problem you had but two years ago I put out some "white" LED lights and they were dull dim yellow in reality. I discovered this is because they only run on one half of each AC cycle so they are ON only 50% 0f the time. I corrected this problem using a bridge rectifer mounted in a quad outlet box. The only problem with this scheme is that the lights are polarity sensitive and wont come on at all if plugged in the wrong way(rotate light string plug 180 degrees). Otherwise the lights are much more brighter and vivid.

Jimmie

[Jeff Thies]

I was just in Target. And before I even got to the LEDs the first string I saw were C9 red incandescents.

Jeff

[krw]

Lowes, today, had a bunch of them. They had more incandescent types than LED.

[Dan L]

Bronner's Christmas Store.

one hour drive for me... Mail order for others.

[Brooklyn1]

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:16:49 -0500, Jeff Thies wrote:

The incondecent holiday lights are not big sellers for residential use anymore so many retail stores no longer carry them (some carry the minis - Sears). Incondescents also require more than double the warehousing space, there is lots of bulb breakage, and there are many returns, but they are still readily available on line... there are quite a few web sites, here's one:

no longer use the incondescents, in fact a few years ago I tossed lots of strings of them into the trash.... I didn't feel bad at all as each season more than half those bulbs burn out so the ones I tossed were very close to dying. I now use all LEDs; my electric bill increase for the holiday season is barely noticeable, but most importantly LEDs are far safer (no heat). And the new LEDs are very bright and very colorful... even using 2-3 times as many hardly affects electric useage. In fact I've been using LEDs for five years now and not even one bulb has burned out. Now I'm waiting for the solar LEDs to come down in price. If someone offered me the incondescents for free I'd not take them. I think the LEDs look much nicer too, nore twinkly, far more aesthetically pleasing than those olde tyme clunky incondescents. The LEDs are easier to put up too, they don't need to be orientated, with incondescents unless the bulbs are all pointed in the same direction they look awful.

[krw]

varieties than LEDs. I don't like LEDs, much. The flicker is annoying (the PF has to be horrid) and the "white" ones are really ugly.

I toss the strings every few years but I have enough to last a long time. I buy them after Christmas for about $1 per string. I have 20 strings, or so, that I haven't opened yet.

Of course you ignore the cost of the LED strings.

Nonsense. You're making excuses to justify your expense.

You *really* are forgetting the cost of the lights.

Solar LEDs?

Choice is a good thing.

More nonsense.

[Jeff Thies]

The mini incandescents are particularly inefficient. About 40W or so/

100 string.

Run that for a few weeks most all the time and you've easily got $2/string. The incandescents were always a pain to keep them all going and usually easier to throw away. IMHO, the advantage in cost and time is LEDs.

Now, I don't like the larger c9 or so LED lamps as it is just one little light in a shell (what I've seen). The hot lamps are some power gluttons though and storage was always more hassle. Mine rarely get used as a result.

The minis (hot lamps) are pretty harmless, the larger sizes require caution. The cause of many many a house fire at one time.

I'm not sad to see the mini incs fading away. The others I'm more sentimental over. Efficiency isn't everything. XMAS is all about throwing money away, after all. Up to a limit.

Jeff

[Kurt Ullman]

For some reason I find comforting that despite your admitted ignorance on the subject, you are still more than willing to chime in. Probably the consistency of it all.