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Old 24th Dec 2018, 7:08 pm   #441
Lancs Lad
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

I do still have a couple of incandescent, 20 light, 240 volt Christmas sets, bought from Debenhams in 1987. I don't use them because LEDs have improved so much.

It has always amazed me how such teeny tiny bulbs can run on full mains voltage.

Even as a child in the 70s it didn't seem right, somehow, that such miniscule bulbs, with such cat whisker filaments, threaded on such weedy green (bell?) wire, should have a whacking great 13 amp plug on the end. Fused at 3 amp, of course (although not always!)

When I bought my Debenhams ones, I managed to buy some 2 amp fuses for the plugs.
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Old 24th Dec 2018, 7:22 pm   #442
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Not much change here in West Sussex. The light strip is a collection of ancient SBC candle bulbs run on reduced voltage.

The Christmas tree dates from around 1973 and the television is 1953.

The larger lights to the right of the dark picture are a 12 set of 20v lamps from the 1930's.

Christmas will always be tradition for me.

I very much like your candelabra. Nice woodworking. John.
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Old 24th Dec 2018, 7:29 pm   #443
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Quote:
Originally Posted by hannahs radios View Post
I have 3 sets of filament lamps on my tree total wattage for the whole lot it about 50 watts if I run them all with a 100 watt incandescent bulb in series will that give any useful increase in life? I think it would but am not sure so thats why I'm asking
Yes it should.
Detailed calculation wont help much because lamp filaments vary in resistance according to temperature.
If the 100 watt lamp glows dimly then all is well.
If it lights fairly brightly, and the Christmas lights are too dim, then try a higher wattage series lamp such as 150 watts.
If the series lamp hardly glows, and the Christmas lights are almost full brilliance, then try a lower wattage series lamp.

I would prefer a lower voltage and lower wattage series lamp, such that it glows with reasonable brightness and could be placed atop the tree.
24 volt 5 watt or 6 watt perhaps.
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Old 25th Dec 2018, 3:11 am   #444
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

I always put a series diode inside the mains plug to reduce the dissipation of a series mains string.
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Old 27th Dec 2018, 4:15 pm   #445
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Thank. After I take my tree down after my birthday I'll try an experiment with first a 100 watt bulb then a 150 watt and see what's best, then in theory next year the lights should have an easier Xmas.
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Old 22nd Feb 2019, 1:05 am   #446
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I always put a series diode inside the mains plug to reduce the dissipation of a series mains string.

There was a post about this in every day electronics magazine back in the 80s so I did it to our sets of lights and it did increase the life of the bulbs,
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Old 22nd Feb 2019, 1:25 pm   #447
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Every so often i come across an unusual and useful fuse suitable for a 13A plug- I'm familiar with the occasional 7A and 10A (usually in black just like the 5A for some reason)
I also have a 1A,2A, and a 500mA (which is glass and looks rather old)

An off the shelf slow-blow 3A normally fitted to a set of fairy lights would pass 5A for quite a while- a huge amount when you think about it!

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Old 22nd Feb 2019, 4:01 pm   #448
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Shop closed. Reopening in time for the festive season.
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Old 7th Nov 2019, 10:30 pm   #449
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Default Unusual Vintage Christmas Lights

Hello.

I am new to the forums. I would like to know if anyone has ever come across a set of Wink’n’Blink Starlites before, or anything similar? There is a flasher bulb in the middle and once it has warmed up, it makes the rest of the lights on the star bright, then they go back to a full brightness and repeat. I don’t know who these are made by, but the bulbs are Empire made. This is one of my sets I own in my collection.
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Old 16th Nov 2019, 10:54 pm   #450
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Hello.

Every year I visit Garden Centres on the run up to December and I have noticed that the vintage, style Noma sets, such as ‘Canterbury Belles’, ‘Victorian Lanterns’ and the ‘Pickwick’ sets, with incandescent fairy light bulbs, seem to be available for customers to buy again, which has surprised me because, I thought the incandescent fairy lights were no longer manufactured.
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Old 17th Nov 2019, 2:37 pm   #451
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

I did see a 40 light set of incandescent lights (clear) on sale on a stall in Chelmsford market last week, but they are probably left over from last year. I had bought an identical set from the same stall last year (post #435 above).

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Old 17th Nov 2019, 3:24 pm   #452
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Hello.

Possibly. I just thought it was strange, because I can't remember seeing any last year. It was nice to see some available for sale, as I don't like the harsh light that LED sets give off. I have lots of vintage/old Christmas lights, which to me, are far more superior than sets made these days.
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Old 23rd Nov 2019, 2:42 pm   #453
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

And playing "find the dead LED(s)" is a mug's game compared with "chase the dead bulb(s)".

Though even the latter is trying on 40plus lamp sets.
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Old 23rd Nov 2019, 3:15 pm   #454
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Finding the failed lamp in a long series string can be very tedious. Here is one way to ease the work.

Most longer strings of lights consist of two wires twisted together with all the lamps in series along one wire with the other wire being a long continuous length from the mains plug to the most distant lamp.

Connect this long wire to mains neutral, and connect live to the short wire to the first lamp. I put a short piece of red or brown heatshrink over the wire to be connected to mains live.

If the set does not light, try a voltstick on each lamp, starting from the live end. The open circuit is then found as being the first lamp on which the voltstick does not light, or the immediately previous lamp.
For this to work reliably, the long continuous wire must be connected to neutral as described. If the long wire is connected to mains live, then a "false positive" indication may be obtained due to the proximity of this wire to each lamp.
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Old 24th Nov 2019, 1:53 am   #455
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Hello.

I have heard of people years ago replacing a duff bulb, in an old series set with tin foil, by pushing it up the bulb holder, to make the rest of the lights work! Not a good idea! I have plenty of spare bulbs for my vintage sets I use, so I should be ok, this Christmas, should any bulbs blow.
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Old 24th Nov 2019, 8:45 am   #456
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

VoltStick-type testers are perfect for testing series-wires Christmas lighting sets.

If you use one on the very last lamp in the set, it will light if the "return" wire is live. (Or if that lamp is the faulty one.) Swap the wires in the plug, if needs be. If the "return" wire is neutral, work back towards the plug: the tester will light at any position between the plug up to and including the faulty lamp, but not the first lamp downstream of the fault. Everywhere up to the blown bulb, the filaments have continuity, so both wires are live. The faulty bulb has one wire live and one wire connected to neutral, so the tester will see an electric field. And everywhere from the break to the turnaround point at the last bulb is connected to neutral, so the tester will remain unlit.

The mathematically-fastest way to find the fault is by splitting the set in half each time. In a 20-light set, test no. 10 and if you see voltage, test 15; if no voltage, test 5. At this point, it breaks down due to odd numbers, but you only need at most another 4 tests due to the fast decrease in search space. It's still only a maximum of 8 tests on a 40-light set (40 anyway to check the wiring; 20; 10 or 30; 5, 15, 25 or 35; and then at most 4 more.)
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Old 24th Nov 2019, 4:08 pm   #457
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

I use mainly LED Christmas lighting on account of the long life and reduced energy used.
I do however have some incandescent ones as I like the retro look.
In general, LED Christmas lights are left on 24/7 during the festive season, but incandescent lights are connected via B22 lamp holder plugs to the room lighting and thus see more limited use.

A new departure this year is old style but newly purchased mains voltage festoon lighting intended for coloured GLS lamps, but fitted with coloured LED "filament" lamps.
A total of 40 lamps around my yard and garden, mixed red, green, blue, yellow, and daylight bulbs each 4 watts. I selected daylight rather than warm white as one colour because the warm white and the yellow LEDs are very similar.
160 watts is significant unlike the miniature LEDs used indoors.
Controlled by a timeswitch to limit energy used and to avoid keeping the neighbours awake.
ON------15-00
OFF-----23-30
ON------07-30
OFF-----09-30

I have always been a bit nervous of mains voltage festoons due to electric shock risk. These festoons will be connected via an isolating transformer so as to prevent shocks to earth. Possibly also an RCD which does give some additional protection even on an isolated supply.

Christmas lights not yet turned on apart from brief tests, but any day now.
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Old 24th Nov 2019, 9:41 pm   #458
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Pifco lights have been mentioned previously, but no one has mentioned the Cinderella lights that they made. I’ve always wondered why they seem to go for much more money than the other Pifco sets. This is a set of mine, which were given to me by my grandmas cousin, back in 2012. They were purchased for her daughter in the early 1970s. I have only used them for two Christmas seasons since they were given to me.
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Old 24th Nov 2019, 11:02 pm   #459
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

Nice one RE: the Cinderella lights, that brings back memories of Christmas past
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Old 25th Nov 2019, 11:40 am   #460
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Default Re: Vintage Christmas Tree lights

We had a set of Pifco "London Lights", which had the same small lanterns as the "Cinderella" lights shown above, but instead of coaches, there were larger (6 sided?) plastic lanterns with coloured panels set into a brass-effect frame. The dye in the filters of the mini-lanterns, particularly the greens and the blues, seemed to fade after only a few seasons; whereas the larger lanterns kept their colour much better, probably due just to the greater separation from the lamps (there could well even have been some UV present up very close to the lamps, which would be the first victim of the inverse-square law .....)

The light from an LED is a fairly pure wavelength, but the light from a tungsten filament is filtered white light. LEDs have much richer, deeper colours; but filament lamps produce a unique effect which cannot be replicated by anything else. The fact of it being filtered white light, and especially the "spilled" light being white, can pick up better on coloured, reflective ornaments even if they do not match the lamp colour.

Some of the people around these parts definitely seem to be recreating the Derbyshire custom of Well Dressing for the Winter, using LEDs instead of flower petals!
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