I’m about to head outside to hang up some Christmas lights and am wondering if anybody has come across any innovative techniques for the task. I’ve heard that stringing the lights through sections of pvc is a good way to expedite the process for next year? Anybody tried this, anybody have any other slick ways to hang lights that’ll keep me breaking last years sun damaged plastic hangers as they snap under pressure.
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Several years ago I got a piece of rope, some lights, and some tinsel garland, and wound them all together, making a garland sized to fit across the front of our garage. It's cut to the right size, so I just hang both ends on gutter hooks, then the middle, then eyeball thirds to get six segments. (If I wasn't quite so lazy I'd measure off and mark the spots on the rope, I guess.)
Anyway, this goes up in about 5 minutes, just hanging it from hooks on the gutter edge.
I installed some brass cup hooks about every 2 ft up the gables and everywhere I wanted lights. Then the next year I could stand on the ground with a long pole and loop the lights onto the hooks. I use either a telescoping paint roller extension handle, or a fiberglass pruning saw with the blade removed, and I bend a piece of coat hanger wire to the desired hook and duct tape it in place.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I also use cup hooks. If you can use the 1" cup hooks, it's really easy to hook the lights in.
I use a piece of 3/4" galvanized electrical conduit with a special "light string" plastic fixture duct taped to the top. You can hook two 10' sections together with a coupling if you need more length.
Love to help ya but..............
I'm old school on this, I only use c-9 lights & I staple them so every one of them is perfectly straight out from the house.
Yeah yeah I know it's a pain pullin all the staples out for the rest of the year.
“It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
C-9's use a lot of juice (7W per bulb)and they put out a lot of light. I installed an electronic dimmer and a dedicated outlet under the eaves, connected to the porch light circuit. I dim down the lights until they just glow nicely without bathing the facia and walls in light - looks great and cuts power consumption by more than half.BruceT
Lots a juice---oh yeah.
I went pretty tame this year I only have 14 strings up, eves & columns.
Usually I have about 44 strings up when I do my driveway in RV tent supports, looks like you're driving through a lifesize croquet set.“It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Will also improve bulb life significantly.
People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. --Otto von Bismarck
1. I had the sparky run 2 20 amp circuits thru a double circuited time clock. From there, we branched out to different sides of the house. N & S sides get fed from circuit #1, E & W from #2. The outside outlets have two duplexes are on these circuits. Single duplexes are on other circuits and not timed (used for other purposes or when I go beyond the 40 A total).
2. I got this full growed crabapple in the front yard. Nicely trimmed. It holds 100 sets of lites alone. Each set is simply balled up in a lump. With the 18" or so lead, and with connectors on each end, theses clumps end up about 15 to 18" apart - completely thruout the tree. Easy to put up (with Baker rack scaffolding), and take down, it really is a nice unusual look.
3. Another tree is totally covered with the tiny green bulbs. Over that, I strung large, multicolored C-9 lites.
4. And then, the 25 ft. Blue Spruce gets his own assortment of about 20 amps alone.
Don you have a pic of the crabapple in drag?
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Also, the local Xmas shop has these new LED lites that change color. Goes from blue to yellow, with different combinations. Pricey.
But LEDs use much less electricity, and their lifetime is a lot longer, so I've been told.
But LEDs use much less electricity, and their lifetime is a lot longer, so I've been told.
Aye. I've got a set I picked up at Ace Hardware in front of me here...50 foot string of C7-size lights, with an advertised life of 100,000 hours. Total draw is rated at 0.02A. That's two one-hundredths of an Amp. So, on a 20A circuit...1000 strings? That sound right? I presume other factors would limit the actual number you could install on that circuit, but even if I'm off by a factor of ten, that's a lotta lights for one plug.
The lights cost me $22.97 just a couple weeks ago. I figure I'll be mostly converted over to LED lights within the next 3 years.
Last week I saw a LARGE tree (40') decorated entirely in the "white" LED mini lights. Kinda disconcerting, really, as they have a bluish cast to them. I'm okay with the colored lights, but I think I'll stick with incandescents for white lights as long as I can get them.
Jason
Well, I prefer to stretch the lights out i nthe yard first, to get the kinks out, let then adjust to not being "wound up." This also allows checking for dead bulbs an the like, too.
I use shingle clips for the convenience of them to hang them since I use the little numa bulbs.
Once the strings are stretched out, and there's no bad lamps, I coil the run up and run it 'behind' every thing it needs to, then, it's to the ladder.
Once set, which takes patience with the ladder, they generally uninstall with an extension pole with an ornament/light "hook" on it. That goes on a reel, clips and all, for storage. Then, the next year, unrolled, the clips get eyeballed along with the lamps. If a string has to come out, it goes on the ground in the run, and I transfer last year's clips over, position to position. Everything stays in about the same right spot that way.
I thought long and hard about doing something similar to Doug's method, where the hooks stay, but, I did not want to depend on the clowns who installed the metal fascia to make sure that there was good purchace for the "hangers." Personally, I like a fine finish nail over a cup hook--but I also prefer a bucket lift over a ladder, too (just don't always get what you want, despite what that song says <g> . . . )
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