How to Increase the Life of Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are designed to last for about 90 days. Therefore, if you decorate for one month out of the year, you typically need to replace your Christmas lights every three years. However, if you want to get more than three years out of your lights, there are some things you can do to extend their life.

Instructions

1. Purchase an extra strand of lights to use as your parts strand when buying your Christmas lights. That means if you need six strands to decorate your house, purchase seven. Note that each brand, make model and version of Christmas lights is different so using parts from a strand of lights that is not identical to your other strands rarely works, and could be dangerous.

2. Replace blown-out bulbs as soon as you notice them. In most Christmas lights, the remainder of the strand stays lit when a bulb blows, so it is easy to spot the bad bulb. If the entire strand goes out when a bulb is bad, you need to test each light by removing it and putting in a new bulb and locate the blown bulb through trial and error.

3. String together no more than two or three strands of lights to prevent overload. Most light strands have an AC outlet plug at the end. The power used for the lights on the strand, as well as the power used by anything plugged into the strand through the AC outlet, all runs through the fuses in the plug. Too much power running through, created by stringing too many stands together, may cause the fuse to blow.

4. Change the fuse in the plug if it blows and the entire strand of lights does not operate. Sometimes Christmas lights come with spare fuses, but if yours did not, use the fuse from your parts strand. Changing the fuse varies depending on the lights you have. Look for either a cover on the side of the plug that can be removed, or a drawer that slides open between the tines to locate your fuse.

5. If you have a bad light socket on your Christmas light strand but replacing it with a new bulb does not fix the problem, replace the bad socket with a new socket from your extra parts strand. To do this, cut the bad socket out of your lights and cut a new socket from your parts strand. Strip the wires of insulation and then twist them together to make good contact. Insulate the repaired area with electrical tape.

6. Plug your Christmas lights into an electronic dimmer to extend the life of the bulbs. The brighter the bulbs burn, the quicker they burn out. Using a dimmer when running your lights makes the lights not quite as bright, but it also uses less electricity and the bulbs last longer.

Tips & Warnings

• In addition to using a dimmer, you can extend the life of your Christmas lights by putting them on a timer that turns them on and off automatically. This is a good idea if you tend to forget to shut them off and run them more hours than is necessary.

• Handle your Christmas lights as little as possible to avoid breaking and damaging them. If you use an artificial Christmas tree, consider leaving the lights on the tree and wrapping the entire tree to protect the lights. If you remove the lights from the tress, put each strand into its own zippered bag so they do not tangle, and then wrap all of the bags in bubble wrap for protection.