How to install christmas lights on a house

Bulk light line, also called empty socket light line can be purchased by the foot or in ' or 1,' spools. When using this type of cord, you simply measure out how much you need, cut the cord, screw in the bulbs, and then add a slide on the male and female plug. There's no electrical experience needed and the plugs simply slide onto the cord. Since you are able to cut the cord, you can now customize the cord length to the area you are working on. This prevents the age-old problem of having extra sockets and bulbs left over.

We've all seen the houses with perimeter lighting where the homeowner took the leftover cord and bulbs and strung them from the edge of the house, down to some bushes, and tried to hide them in the foliage. With the bulk light line, this is no longer a problem.

Simply cut the cord and add your male to one end and your female to another. When it comes to choosing your light line, you have a variety of options available. These include the socket base size C7 or C9 , a gauge of the cord, the color of the cord, and the spacing between sockets. Let's take a quick look at each of these. For most structural perimeter lighting, C9s are the most commonly used. If lighting displays or small structures, then C7s work well. If you are installing the light line only for the holiday season, we recommend SPT If you are looking to leave your cord up for more than 3 months at a time, then the extra thickness of the insulation on SPT-2 might be a good choice, however, if you plan on keeping the light line up on a year-round basis, then it's recommended that you invest in a heavier weight cord with nylon sockets.

This type of cord is designed to hold up better for long-term use. Color of the Cord - The most popular cord color is white or green.

At times you may come across brown or black, but these colors are hard to find and tend to be more expensive due to the limited production runs at the factories.

Socket Spacing - Spacing between sockets can range from 4" all the way up to 36". The most common spacing is 12" with 9" or 6" frequently being used on small structures with more details that need to be outlined. Once you've decided on the type of cord, it's time to select the bulbs. The first question you'll need to answer is whether to go with incandescent bulbs or LEDs. LEDs have definitely gone mainstream and we sell significantly more LEDs these days than incandescent.

Despite the fact that they cost 5 or 6 times more, most Christmas enthusiasts and virtually all commercial customers we work with exclusively use LED retrofit bulbs. Between the power savings, the long bulb life, and the illumination intensity, LEDs are unbeatable. While we are big fans of LED retrofit bulbs, we have heard numerous horror stories where people have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on LED bulbs, only to get burned due to high failure rates and poor illumination intensity.

These are the only two manufacturers we use for our own installation jobs and haven't found any other bulbs on the market that hold up as well as bulbs from these two high-quality manufacturers. Despite the advantages of LED retrofit bulbs, you may have to settle for incandescent bulbs due to budget constraints. There's a big price difference between LED and incandescent bulbs and sometimes there's just not enough money to make the investment into LEDs. Even though the industry has changed how they measure the brightness of bulbs, incandescent bulbs are still rated in watts the new standard is lumen.

While not an accurate measure of the brightness of bulbs, you can follow this old rule for purchasing incandescent bulb strands- the higher the watts, the brighter the bulbs. LED Christmas light bulbs use a semi-conductor and a diode that is designed to emit light when current passes through it.

This is much more efficient than incandescent bulbs using resistance to make a filament produce light. When comparing wattage use to lumen output, LED T5 bulbs consume an average of 0. It may seem like I am against incandescent, but I appreciate the look of classic incandescent bulbs. What I do not like about them is the energy usage. When the technology is available to reduce my energy usage and carbon footprint as well as save money , I am excited to use the technology.

Always remember to practice proper electrical safety. Do not handle Christmas light strands while plugged into an outlet, and do not attempt to troubleshoot non-working bulbs while strand is plugged into an outlet. Depending on the height where lights will be hung, an A-frame or extension ladder can be used. When using an extension ladder, first read the instructions on proper setup.

After extending the ladder out, stand with your toes touching the edges of the base of the ladder. Stick your arms straight out at shoulder height parallel to the ground.

If your hands cannot grip the sides of the ladder while your arms are straight, readjust the ladder until they do. Then double-check that you can read the sticker with the beginning of the brand name pointed towards the ground.

This may seem silly to do with new strands, but test every strand new or not before hanging them. Strands could have bad bulbs or not work at all. Most LED strands are wired in parallel with the exception of the end bulbs. If your strand has replaceable LED bulbs, take a look at the color of the base of the end bulbs versus the rest of the bulbs. Generally, the end bulbs will be a different colored base, indicating those bulbs are different and need to go in those spots for the strand to work properly.

These are incredible. Gone are the days of screwing, stapling, and nailing lights to the house. Nylon Christmas light clips come in a variety of sizes to fit most Christmas light bases.

There are different types of clips for attaching lights to trees, shrubs, gutters, roofs, shingles, walls, etc. To create this article, 48 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed , times.

Learn more Time to deck the halls, walls, mantles, and trees, and best of all, hang up the Christmas lights! Decorating the outside of your house will show your Christmas cheer to your neighbors and passersby. It's also a chance to show off your house a little.

With some patience and a bit of creativity, you'll have a house that outshines all the others. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue.

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Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article parts. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Part 1. Align the Christmas lighting display with the style of your home. Is your home a modern house, a Tudor, or a Victorian?

Is a basic tract house or multi-storey? A lighting display should complement both the style of the house and the style of the neighborhood without spoiling it or looking garish. But elegance is a key factor. Strings, strings and more strings of lights around every architectural feature of the house will enhance its stature, making your home the neighborhood beacon of holiday cheer.

A ranch-style or single story home calls for lights around the roof line, the fence and along your entrance walkway. String lights along the roof line, around columns, along the porch railing. Get some inspiration. If you're short on ideas, do a search on Google, or browse through a few magazines for ideas that may be suitable for your own use. Walk around your neighborhood. Borrow ideas that catch your fancy, but avoid copying another house exactly.

That won't look good for either house. If you're new to the neighborhood, visit with your neighbors and find out what people generally do for holiday lighting. You may discover that your street is the street to visit during Christmas, and that everybody goes overboard on lighting. Check out home furnishing stores. Especially the high-end ones. This treatment becomes part of the view from the outside.

Go crazy! If you're really after an eye-grabbing lighting display, consider hooking up a control system to make your Christmas lights flash to music. Part 2. Examine the lights before you get started. Make certain that they all work and that there are no frayed areas in the cords before you take them up the ladder. Avoid repairing frayed cords. Dispose of the entire string if you find damaged cords—it is not worth the risk of fire or electrocution.

Locate the power sources nearest the roof line. It will probably be on the porch, as most houses do not have a power outlet receptacle near the roof. Select an exterior cord which is compatible with your lights, and with the weather it will endure. If you have a porch light that's shielded from the elements, you may be able to insert a socket adapter that places a power socket between the fixture and the lamp. Running an extension cord through a hole or a window or door is a fire hazard and a code violation in most places.

You will need to find an outdoor power outlet or else use battery-powered lights. If you have an exterior outlet somewhere on the house, install your extension cord from the outlet to the roof line keeping the cord as close to the building as possible. Be sure the outlet is protected from rain, snow and sprinklers. It should have a hood that protects it from getting wet even while the lights are plugged in.

Under the national electrical code in the USA and most of Central America , all outdoor receptacles installed after enactment of the edition were required to be protected with a ground-fault circuit interrupter GFCI. If the outlet you are using doesn't have that, you may want to have someone install one now , or you may plug in a portable or cord-mounted GFCI device for temporary use.

Local code requirements may be more strict. Use the right tools. Use a reliable, sturdy ladder, and get a helper if you can. Outdoor lighting requires a lot of lifting, careful placement and aligning, which is much easier to do with a helper or two.