How to Wire Up Outdoor Halloween Lights
Halloween is one of the holidays that brings out the decorating enthusiast in many people. Front lawns are covered with lighted displays of electric pumpkins, graveyards and not-so-scary ghosts. Providing power to your Halloween lights is not as difficult as you may think, but it does require you to invest in the right equipment to make sure no one gets hurt and nothing catches on fire. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Outdoor-rated stake strip with at least six outlets and a 25-foot cord
- Outdoor-rated lighted Halloween decorations
- Outdoor-rated power strips
- Outdoor-rated heavy-duty extension cords at least 25 feet long
- Black plastic ties at least 12 inches long
Instructions
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Wiring Your Outdoor Halloween Decorations for Power
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1
Install an outdoor-rated power stake strip into the ground near where the bulk of your lighted decorations will be and plug it into an outdoor power outlet on the side of your house. Many Halloween decorations are animated, so be sure that your stake strip does not interfere with your moving decorations.
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2
Arrange your Halloween lights so that the power plugs all centralize near the stake strip.
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3
Plug ground-installed lights into an outdoor-rated power strip and then plug that strip into the stake strip. Use an outdoor rated-extension cord if needed.
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4
Plug an outdoor-rated extension cord in to any lights that are hanging on the house.
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5
Run the extension cord for the hanging lights down a corner of the house to prevent it from being seen. Many people run the extension cords behind downspouts to hide them. Use black construction ties to bind the extension cords to the downspouts so they do not dangle. If there are no downspouts available, then use porch railings or porch columns to hide the extension cords.
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6
Plug the extension cords into the stake strip.
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1
Tips & Warnings
The trick is to hide you exterior extension cords as much as possible, so use creative ways to keep them hidden. Bushes, lawn decorations and sidewalk edging are useful in hiding extension cords.
Use only outdoor-rated extension cords. October can be wet and cold in many parts of the country, and outdoor-rated extension cords are designed to safely handle changes in weather.
