Outside christmas lights

[Alfi]

I am thinking of fitting some flashing lights on the front of my house and was wondering how to power them. I dont have a socket on the outside of my house. Any tips?

[Andy Hall]

It's probably better that you don't do this. These are utterly tasteless like plastic reindeer on the roof and that type of thing.

Your neighbours will thank you for it.

Your electricity supplier may be disappointed however.

If you really mut do this, then the best solution is to buy a low voltage set and have the transformer inside the house.

Seasons Greetings

Ebenezer

.andy

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[PoP]

Remind me not to accept your invite for a Christmas drink ;)

PoP

[Andrew Mawson]

Taking things to a ridiculous extreme I know, but in theory you need planning permission for outside Christmas Lights as they fall under the advertising display catch all !

Andrew

[Andy Hall]

Ah, that's different :-)

.andy

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[Christian McArdle]

But wouldn't that be covered by the temporary use exemption? (I don't know, maybe advertising is excluded from the exemption).

Christian.

[Owain]

"Christian McArdle" wrote | > Taking things to a ridiculous extreme I know, but in theory you | > need planning permission for outside Christmas Lights as they | > fall under the advertising display catch all ! | But wouldn't that be covered by the temporary use exemption? (I | don't know, maybe advertising is excluded from the exemption).

And would any local authority risk the "Heartless Council Pulls Plug on Christmas Lights" story in the local paper.

Owain

[nightjar]

One advantage of living in an old house is that there is a big enough gap around the window, when closed, for me to run a 12v wire through it. I put a string of small white (non-flashing) lights in a tree out the front each year, as my concession to Christmas decorations, and run the wire back into the house. Even though I do have outside sockets at strategic places around the house, the transformer is not rated for outdoor use.

Colin Bignell

[Joe Green]

What did your neighbours do to deserve this ?

[Jacob Rosse]

Put theirs up first - time for payback :-)

[Dave Stanton]

You should live near me, house around the corner has 8 foot illuminated Santa on top of the garage. This morning he was lying on his back, think he had been in the pub all night .

Dave

[John]

I wonder how many injuries occur when non-DIYers take to ladders and cable to embark in this seasonal ritual of putting cheap tat on the front of their council house? Hopefully some may take the Engerland flag down whilst they are putting up the lights.

[Andy Hall]

This is where the Darwin principle comes into operation.

.andy

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[Jerry.]

The most awful example I've seen so far this year is a house with a cheap 'blow up' Father Christmas on a house roof along with more lights than Blackpool, what's more the owner is trying to sell the house !...

[James Hart]

When I were a wee un grandad had the only set of flashing lights in town. Dad made them years ago from 6 strings of lights (each with hand painted coloured bulbs) and switched via cams like a mechanical washing machine controller. You could see the lights from a couple of hudred yards away but the clickety clack of the controller box could be heard for miles. The tree's crowning glory was a star made of metal coathagers and waxed paper. These days it's all plastic reindeer and blow up snowmen.

[Snowman]

Reminds me of a local church who put up a banner advertising an exhibition, someone from the council came along and said "ere, you need permission fer that". To which the organisers replied, "oops sorry, we'll take it down then - it'll take a week to get the man with the ladder". The guy from the council was happy with that. Of course, at the end of the week the exhibition had finished!

Peter.

[geoff]

In message , Alfi writes

Yeah - don't do it

[BillR]

Unfortunately probably not as that sort usually start breeding when they are about 13!