I happened to be reading the "How Stuff Works" article on Xmas lights and was intrigued by the description of the self shunting feature of today's series string bulbs as described on this page:
Can you tell us what that material is and what actually occurs?
Jeff
Sorry, I don't really know.
One possibility: Put a series zener diode pair in the socket. When full line voltage appears, the zener diode pair conducts. Possibly possibly the zeners overheat and fail short, or maybe just keep on ticking and drop only a little more voltage than the bulb does. But I don't really know what's in there.
I know there was something used back in the 1970's or early 1980's in some strings and I doubt it had zener diodes. They apparently used something that breaks down and/or heats up and then shorts but I don't know what it was.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
| I know there was something used back in the 1970's or early 1980's in | some strings and I doubt it had zener diodes. They apparently used | something that breaks down and/or heats up and then shorts but I don't | know what it was.
I remember one early version that used spring-loaded supports that were held together by the filament. When the filament burned through the supports moved away from each other and made contact with a surrounding shorting band. Or at least that was the theory. I don't think I've ever had any of these systems (including whatever they were selling as recently as three years ago) work in practice.
Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com
Series shunts are not necessarily an ideal solution. Even though they keep the string of lamps burning, if too many bulbs burn out and shunt, the voltage drop across the remaining bulbs is higher and stressful. Eventually a cascade failure mode will occur.
I once lived in a community that had series streetlights (from 1923) and got to talking with the electrician that maintained them. Across each lamp was a removable shunt about the size of a dime. The disk had two conductive metal faces with a thin insulator sandwiched in-between. Nominal lamp voltage was 120 V. When a lamp burned out, the full series voltage of 2300 V. was applied across the lamp (and the shunt). This punctured the shunt and kept the current flowing through the remaining series lamps.
The other part of the system was a constant current transformer that kept the series current at a uniform level no matter how many lamps were burned out. It was 100% mechanical adjustment, but completely automatic.
Beachcomber
The Christmas tree lamp is somewhat similar.
The bulbs have a pair of oxidized aluminum wires wrapped around the wires and twisted together. If the bulb burns out the full line voltage burns through the oxide coating resulting in a short.
I tried the same question on:
sci.electronics.design
And got a pretty good thread started there.
I never learned how to reference a thread on a newsgroup, so the best I can do is say that my OP on that subjec in that newsgroup was dated
12/07/04 - 10:51 AM. (Would someone please tell me how to refer to a newsgroup post in a message? - I use Netscape 7.2 for my news reader.)The concensus was that the shunt is aluminum wire insulated by a very thin layer of aluminum oxide which can withstand a few volts, but breaks down at full line voltage and "punches through".
A "forcer" accessory device was also mentioned. It puts a high voltage limited current whap across the string of bulbs to force that breakdown in the bulb with an open filament in case it stubbornly didn't happen as planned.
Happy Holidays,
Jeff
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.