Connect Christmas Lights Sets End To End - Only 2?

I bought some 300 bulb Icicle lights sets at Target.

On the box it says (word for word):

"Electrical rating: 120V, 0.6 Amps, 72 watts

Connect up to 210 Watts or 2 sets (600 lights) of the same TARGET 300 icicle light set."

Lousy grammar aside, if the sets are rated at 72 watts and you can "connect up to 210 watts", why the "2 sets (600 lights)" limitation?

What will happen if I connect 3 or 4 sets together - other than the Christmas Lights police coming after me?

Thanks!

Reply to
DerbyDad03
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can blow fuses in light sets, may overheat wires, etc etc.

my wife did this once tied all the sets in one long string and blew fuses that cost about as much as a new set of lights....... i warned her not too

we are getting divorced

Reply to
hallerb

On 11/20/2010 2:35 PM DerbyDad03 spake thus:

I'm confused too because of the unclear wording. If one set is rated at

72 watts, 210 watts should cover 3 sets, right? (OK, 216 watts.) So maybe they mean that you can connect up to 2 *more* sets to the one you have now?

As someone else said, the limiting factor here is probably the fuse in the light set. The wires are probably heavy enough to allow more sets than the fuses will handle.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Make sure you disconnect the strings before the fire inspector gets there. Insurance companies look for ways to disallow your claim.

What's unclear about it? Three sets exceeds 210 watts. The math is simple. Don't try to understand the intersection of all the quirks of international safety rules. Follow the directions and you should be fine.

If your car holds 14 gallons of gas. You've got 3 5-gallon jerry cans. Trying to put in all 3 is a BAD idea. And it doesn't matter what "someone else" told you.

On a technical note... The power factor is likely horrible, so the peak current may be way bigger than you'd think for 72 watts.

I haven't put a product thru safety certification in over 20 years, but at that time, "Probably" was not a term that you'd want to use in the presence of the test engineer...especially if you had no idea what you were talking about.

I never understood why people insist on putting heat sources on dessicated pine trees inside their houses...and ignoring the safety specs.

>
Reply to
mike

On 11/20/2010 3:34 PM mike spake thus:

Safety concerns noted. But if the package says it's safe to use 3 strings, then shouldn't the consumer be able to trust that? Ass-u-ming there are UL/CSA/whatnot labels on it. Otherwise, what are they going to trust?

The problem is it's totally unclear how many strings are safe to use. How do you parse the instructions the OP gave?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

3 sets would be 6 watts over the limit.
Reply to
Pat

Having worked in commercial buildings and done some holiday decor work -- the target specs on what loads you could safely support off the holiday light sets gave you wattages and the number of INDENTICAL strings you could connect because not every manufacturer builds light sets that use exactly the same wattage and it doesn't leave you trying to convert it says "210 watts total or less" very clearly for you...

Sounds like you need some properly rated outdoor extension cords...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

I could find nothing in the original post that said, "it's safe to use 3 sets." You have better first-hand information than I do. If that's what YOUR package says, you should be able to do that.

Reply to
mike

Yeah, I get that.

As I re-read my OP, I can see that I wasn't clear in what I was asking.

- Connect up to 2 sets end to end **

Reply to
DerbyDad03
[snip]

What the instructions say can be really wrong. I actually measure the current load. For example, a 100-light miniature string uses .4A.

The current limit for multiple sets connected together is determined by the wiring and the fuse, and as stated as 3A. I then subtract 1A for safety (and poor quality control in the lights). That means 5 sets are OK. I've used 5 many times with no problem.

Note that extension cords normally have higher limits. You can plus multiple sets of lights into one cord. Regular cords say 13A, but can overheat with more than 10A continuous.

All 4 sets are taking current through the fuse in the first set. Can it handle 4 sets? If these are miniature lights, as I mentioned above, that would be 2.4A through a 3A fuse. It may work, or you could be replacing that fuse a lot.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Those tiny Italian lights have a fuse built into the plug, and the string of lights and anything that is plugged into the plug all go through the fuses, so be cautious. A triple cube-tap plugged into the end of an extension cord wil solve many problems.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Where it says "made in xxxx", what is xxxx? Do you trust the English to have been carefully and accurately written and/or transcribed?

Maybe older strings used 105W, and were revised to use 72W, but the package wasn't carefully proofed.

Maybe the numbers are in octal.

Edward

Reply to
Edward Reid

It is time for that old joke about Halloween equalling Christmas for programmers? (OCT31 = DEC25)

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

On most of mine the piggy back plug does not go thru the fuses. A cheap way to replace the fuse is to wrap a small bit of aluminum foil around it. You can plug more strings onto the end that way as well. You are breaking the safety rules but the wire will handle a few more strings and a dead short will melt the foil.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

Yes.

The fuse will eventually blow if you exceed the current rating, You should have spare fuses in the little packet with spare bulbs. There should be some way to open the plug and replace them.

It won't matter what is plugged in the end, as long as the total wattage is less, per string, than what they rate.

You may wish to try some of the LED lights, they use a lot less current and will pay for themselves if you leave the lights on a lot. Hence more strings end to end. You probably will note a color difference if you mix sets.

Jeff

In other words, the

Reply to
Jeff Thies

I often find errors in the packaging for Holiday lights (such as electrical ratings). Instead of relying on those, I make my own measurements (and add a little for safety).

Miniature lights use .2A per series (this can be 35, but is usually 50. 100 lights is 2 series). C7 (and G40) lights use 1.3A per 25 lights. C9 lights use 1.5A per 25 lights. LED lights use .002A per string (50-70).

an extension cord (#16) allows 10A (ends overheat with 13A). Use 2 cords to get the maximum available from an outlet.

I make use of these rules when putting out lights (I start on Black Friday).

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

On 11/22/2010 6:18 AM jamesgangnc spake thus:

You know, in some other situations I might consider this an acceptable solution. But as someone else pointed out here, we're talking about an electrical device (actually lots of them, with lots of wire) strung on a highly combustible conifer. Potential recipe for disaster. Not worth taking chances on (unless you were already planning on insurance arson or some such).

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

For years the things didn't have any fuses at all. Relied on common sense as to how many you daisy chained. Of course common sense is in short supply so now when we used to be able to string 4 or 5 of them we can't any more because of a few morons.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

On 11/22/2010 12:21 PM jamesgangnc spake thus:

And of course during those years we had *no* fires resulting from Xmas-tree lights ...

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

On 11/22/2010 11:57 AM Mark Lloyd spake thus:

Well, how nice for you.

Unfortunately, beyond the capability of most people. Even most people here on a.h.r, I'd guess.

So how do you measure current? Kill A Watt? or multimeter + shunt resistor?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

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