My wife bought three strands of lights on clearance last year in anticipation of decorating the outside of our house for the first time this year. Big multi-colored C9 bulbs with dangling white icicle strands of T1 bulbs. It didn’t occur to me that they wouldn’t reach around the roof, turns out they had a total of 10’ lighted feet each, and nobody carried those strands anymore. It was time to hit Google and learn about my options.
How should I hang them?
There are a ton of hangers available. And there are tons of things that can hang lights that are not hangers. I was not able to find any clips designed for hanging lights that would stay up, so I turned to instructibles and found a great solution. Checking Ebay and Amazon, I purchased a cheap bulk order of 100 pieces, which turned out to be enough to hang two strands of lights over 90’ (28m) with dozen spares.
You should definitely inspect each clip and prepare it prior to climbing on the roof. I attached the clips at regular intervals ahead of time, and had a pocket full of ones ready for tricky spots like corners.
How do I pick out which lights to get?
This was a tricky problem, I hit up three stores to set some parameters. Walmart (to set my base point), Home Depot (to set my high point) and then BJ’s Wholesale Club (for comparison).
LED lights: These lights are a bit more expensive and rarely as bright. Now that the cons are out of the way, they make up for it in several ways, and turned out cheaper for me up front. Their light quality is higher even if they are not as bright. They have a higher maximum chain length reducing extension cords. They consume less electricity, about 13% of condescends. They don’t get hot. The chain length is the selling point for me, I can light my entire house without concern for extension cords.
Maximum chain length: The gauge of the wire determines how many lights you can chain together, end-to-end from a single outlet. Commercial grade condescends allow about 6 strands, while residential grade allow between 2 and 3 strands. If you go too long, you risk damage to your lights and potential fire. The solution is to run extension cords to each starting point which is no fun.
The LED lights are a different story, the ones I bought allow up to 48 strands on a single chain. And that is the minimum that I’ve seen.
Cost per lighted foot: Some companies display the “lighted length” and some companies display the total length from plug-to-plug. Keep this in mind when you are browsing. Higher gauge wire on LEDs and commercial grade condescend lights is tough to work with. It is springy and doesn’t cooperate when it is new. Make sure that you’ve got about a couple inches per each foot extra lights. Other than that, just divide the lighted length by the price and multiply by your roof line.
What did I eventually purchase?
I purchased five strands of 140 LED icicle lights, three strands of 50 LED C9 lights for my 90 feet of roof line and a 6 outlet dusk-dawn timer for around $130. We plan to add a little each year. Everything turned out to be Sylvania brand. These lights have very short unlighted cords, meaning that light-to-plug on both ends is unnoticeable when they are hung without having to bunch them together. If you use them on your tree, make sure you start with an extension cord.
