Vintage Christmas Tree lights

[eric8650]

SWIMBO is putting the tree up this weekend. Got to get my set of Pifco bubble lights set up again. Have had these for four years now. I run them with a set of 8 cone lights all connectd to a light dimmer. By switching on at the lowest setting and gradually bringing them up to full power over 10 mins or so have not had a single bulb blow over the past 3 years. When I first got the bubble light set found a supplier in Germany with a small stock (17) of 30 volt lamps. I bought the lot and so far have not used any of the spares. Happy Xmas to all.

Dave

[pifcolights]

Regarding the filament bulbs has anyone noticed the difference in quality between Homebase own brand and Noma?

Homebase have a 80 light set in filament style for £6 whereas the Noma 80 are £19.95 from litelec quite a big price difference for a smallish set. The Homebase look like Noma just wondered if it was worth spending more on a named brand.

[McMurdo]

Can't comment on the Homebase but Noma are certainly good quality, nice rich colours, robust wiring and termination and a long lead in. At least on mine!

[pifcolights]

What's your view on LED versus filament? A lot of people are led to believe that LED are more reliable but not sure myself.

[McMurdo]

IMHO LED lights are built to the lowest possible standard. Noma (again) make LED lights with startlingly rich bright colours and strong flex compared to the discount shops, but I'm a devoted filament fan

[broadgage]

Most mains operated LED lighting strings are indeed of very poor quality, and often flicker badly.

For outdoor use I favour the very cheap battery operated LEDs that are intended to work from 3 AA cells. It is a simple job to remove the battery holders and wire 3 similar sets in series and utilise an external 12 volt DC supply.
If doing this take great care to retain the original current limiting resistors, sometimes these are inside the battery holder. I fit a fuse lamp of 5 volts 0.09amps in series.

A suitable 12 Volt DC power supply is easily located indoors and long runs of wire little problem in view of the low current.
Have just put up about 1,500 LEDs wired thus, the total loading is only about half an amp at 12 volts.

Indoors I largely use old or old style incandescent, often cheap pound shop ones that although newly manufactured have been made to the same basic design for decades.
10 sets each of 20 lamps, wired end to end make a splendid display ! I have several such long strings.
And of course the obligatory sets of a dozen 20 volt 3 watt lamps in series, not Christmas without some of those.

In general LED lights use so little energy that I leave them on until twelfth night.
Incandescent use rather more and are normally turned when the room is not in use, for both fire safety and energy saving.

[G6Tanuki]

I've recently put up outside a few of the 240-LED mains-powered strings available at "the Range". They seem to work surprisingly well for the money, and only draw a few Watts so there's no need to worry ablout leaving them on.

[The SMPS wall-warts to drive them I waterproof by pushing them inside cut-down "Toilet Duck" bottles cable-tied into the trees with the open end facing down].

[pifcolights]

I think I'm a filament fan too the bulbs are a lot more warmer looking and I like the fact you can replace bulbs if they go rather than having to put up with gaps in LED strings. I did buy some Premier 'Supabrights' once for outdoors but the LED's failed after a year so weren't impressed. I've stocked up on W1 bulbs for my Noma Blizzard 40 and 140 sets. Xmas direct I've found pretty good for Noma W1 Spares!

[Brigham]

Originally Posted by broadgage

10 sets each of 20 lamps, wired end to end make a splendid display !

That sounds like my type of set-up. It would need somewhere around 2kV for a nice warm, not-too-bright glow.

[broadgage]

They are not all in series ! that would need a dangerously high voltage in order to give a decent light.
The 20 sets of lights are ELECTRICALLY in parallel but PHYSICALY joined end to end so as to give the appearance of a single long string.

[Oldcodger]

As this is related solely to Xmas lights, I've put it in here. I found with last set (Noma springs to mind) that garden centres often stock replacement lamps. That's where I found replacements when I last had a set.

[TrevorG3VLF]

I made a signal generator fitted inside a 35mm plastic film canistor. I used this to trace mains wires in walls and to find faulty fairy lamps.

I have just sorted out a few sets and have put a 1N4007 in the plug. The intention is to reduce voltage to give longer life but I saw somewhere that bulbs last longer on AC because tungsten migration works both ways. Have I done the right thing?

What thinkest thou?

[broadgage]

Most lamps fail by evaporation of the tungsten filament, therefore reducing the operating temperature of the filament and thus reducing the rate of evaporation will prolong lamp life.

AC operation tends to give a longer lamp life than DC, other factors being equal, but the effect is small.

The gain from lower filament temperature far outweighs any slight reduction from the use of DC.

Despite this, a series diode is not my favoured means of prolonging lamp life as I find the flicker obtrusive and that the lamps are TOO dim.
I prefer to either insert extra lamps in a series string, or to reduce the voltage by use of a transformer.
A reduction in voltage of about 15%, or inserting 15% more lamps gives a significant increase in life.
20 volt lamps, 14 in series
12 volt lamps, 23 or 24 in series
6 volt lamps, 46 in series.

24 volt vehicle lamps that are actually designed for about 28 volts, are fine 10 in series on the mains.
Likewise 12 volt vehicle lamps give a long life burnt 20 in series on the mains.

[The Philpott]

Oh dear. The word "Discontinued" is starting to spread across the genuine NOMA spare bulb list/s! It had to happen sooner or later.

[Craig Sawyers]

I might have been one of the first to use LED Christmas Tree lights. I made them back in 1979 when we were just married. I could buy them pretty cheap from the University (Southampton) electronics store. Wired in series, only red and green back then, and very dim and inefficient by today's standards. Fed from a regulated DC supply I built in an Eddystone die cast case.

We used those right until about five years ago when we sprung for two sets of modern LED lights. So darned reliable and did not miss a beat in over 30 years.

Yeah, yeah - I know it is strictly off-topic, but I reckon that my LED lights in the late 70's are pretty vintage.

Craig

[winston_1]

A good free source of old sets is the local council electrical recycling bin in council car parks this time of the year.

[pifcolights]

Do you think the screw in lamps used by Pifco and Noma in the 70s, 80s and early 90s were more reliable than the push in variety? When I owned Pifco 12 v 1.1 watt set bulbs I only ever replaced one bulb in 10 Years! However with the Noma w1 I find the bulbs burn out every season and so far I've replaced 6 bulbs out of my blizzard 40 set.

I think Ebay is the best place for sourcing bulbs now.

[AC/HL]

We had a blizzard set. One chain had completely failed this year, every alternate lamp open or short. W1s are getting a bit too expensive so we've joined the LED world. They've matured nowadays, not overbright like they were once.

[The Philpott]

The Premier RB100 strings of 100 push-in lamps (mine are 2.5v 0.38w) are becoming tricky to find spare lamps for. What has started to happen on sale/auction website/s is enterprising companies are stripping the bulbs out of retired strings, repackaging and selling them as s/h but tested across a cell- which i suppose is fair enough as the ones i just purchased were only 50p each.

Yet again there is some bewildering variation, the RB100/RB100M lamps, some say, come in 3 different versions with slightly different wattages/bases.

If you want to get some i think you can guess where to look.

[McMurdo]

Push in bulbs are inherently more reliable than screw in ones which always have to be tightened before use. And most push-in bulbs are stay-alight types. When I was a small boy I used to 'help' the teacher to fault find the tree lights at school, the tree usually took 3 strings of 20. They were of course screw-in and I remember his desk being awash with various bulbs and in an ash tray and him using a battery-operated continuity tester to test each bulb before re inserting it. I was not popular when I tipped the box of blown bulbs into the ashtray of good ones meaning he had to test them all again.
I've got 1 string of screw-in 20-lights and 3 strings of push-in 20-lights. None of my push in lights have failed in the 20 years I've been at this house...and they are so old that they were bought by me saving my pocket money up and getting them from the local corner shop