Help Stringing Christmas Lights

Hey Tailgate, georgiaredskin and I are about to put up our Christmas lights.

I'm assuming they should all be plugged into GFCI outlets. However, only one of our outdoor outlets is, to my untrained eye, GFCI. (House built in 1925). I've tested them with an outlet tester and they're properly grounded, but I don't see any reset button or anything marking them as GFCI.

I haven't done the math yet, but my assumption is that we have too many lights for one outlet. Should I buy some of those GFCI adapters so I can use the other outlets? Do they work properly? Is there an easier way?

1) I'd be amazed if you have too many lights for one outlet.

2) It's entirely possible that your one GFCI outlet protects all of the outlets. Simplest way to find out is to push the "test" button on the one GFCI outlet, (thus tripping the GFCI), and then see if the other outlets lose power.

3) If they aren't protected by a GFCI, and if you really want to be protected (I think it's not that important, but your opinion), then you can get something like this, which will give you GFCI protection on a circuit that wasn't built with it.

what is gfci

Just throw them haphazardly over the roof. That's what I always do. Looks better than Clark Griswald's house.

GFCI is a waste of time. Just plug them in you'll be fine.

Electric pressure washers? Yah, GFCI is a good idea. Standing in a puddle of water using a hair dryer? Yah, GFCI is a good idea.

Christmas lights? I'm assuming your house has a fuse panel. You'll be fine.

---------- Post added December-3rd-2012 at 05:16 PM ----------

what is gfci

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt

Basically, water makes it trip. The tiniest most miniscule amount of water. They're over-used if you ask me.

what is gfci

It's a type of circuit breaker that's designed to protect people, instead of wiring.

Your normal household circuit is rated for 15 amps of current. (Well, 15 and 20 are the common ratings.)

That means that every component in your wiring: The wires, the outlets, the switches, are designed so that if 15 amps of current are passing through them, they won't get dangerously hot. If you try to allow 20 to go through them, they'd get hot. Possibly hot enough to start a fire. But they can take 15 all day long.

Then they put a circuit breaker (or a fuse) in the circuit. Try to pull more than 15 amps through it, and it shuts off the power.

That's what a circuit breaker does: It makes sure not to send more power down the wire, than the wire can handle.

The problem is, a lot less than 15 amps can kill you.

If the power is going through you, then you will die long before your body pulls enough power to run the risk of melting the wire.

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Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters aren't designed to prevent house fire, they're designed to prevent electrocutions.

The GFCI measures how much power is "going down the wire", and it measures how much power comes back, on the other wire.

If 4.30 amps are going down the "hot" wire, and only 4.29 amps are coming back on the "neutral" wire, then 0.01 amp is going somewhere else. (Possibly through a person.) The GFCI can detect that slight disparity between what goes out and what comes back, and will shut off the power.

Most electrical codes now require GFCIs on outlets that might be exposed to water, because that greatly increases the chance of somebody receiving a small but possibly still fatal shock.

That said, though, I agree with Zoony. IMO, a GFCI on your outdoor Christmas lights really isn't required. If it were me, I wouldn't bother. I simply provided you with a way you could have one, if your opinion differs from mine.

Are they incandescent or LED?

Based on typical wattage you should be able to get about four strings (~400) of the incandescent lights on one outlet. With LED multiply that by ten.

After that you would want to look at which outlets are connected to which circuit. Or you could just keep adding until a breaker trips.

Or you could just keep adding until a breaker trips.

I think 250 ft of the small incandescents is the best I've done on one plug,more than three strings in line will usually blow the fuse on the light string itself

throwing in the spotlights and other junk adds up in a hurry

did I mention I hate doing Christmas lights/decorations?

I think 250 ft of the small incandescents is the best I've done on one plug,more than three strings in line will usually blow the fuse on the light string itself

It's tough to overload a breaker with Christmas lights.

Not hard at all to overload a small extension cord, or daisy-chaining lights. They often are rated a whole lot lower than a 15A breaker.

I bought a multi outlet timer (6 outlets) that plugs into the outside wall. It has a GFCI built into it. It was a little expensive, but worth it. I run all the lights to the timer first. I wrap all connecting cords with electical tape, cover in a plastic grocery bag and tie it off with a twist tie to keep rain and moisture out.

---------- Post added December-4th-2012 at 11:37 AM ----------

It's tough to overload a breaker with Christmas lights.

Not hard at all to overload a small extension cord, or daisy-chaining lights. They often are rated a whole lot lower than a 15A breaker.

I string together 5 of the icycle lights. Never had a problem (crosses fingers, knocks on wood). I have garage, front window and front door on one connection.

Thanks for the input everyone!

Are they incandescent or LED?

Based on typical wattage you should be able to get about four strings (~400) of the incandescent lights on one outlet. With LED multiply that by ten.

After that you would want to look at which outlets are connected to which circuit. Or you could just keep adding until a breaker trips.

Bingo. The Mrs. has a lot of Christmas decorations and I ended up putting the bulk of them up. Unfortunately,they're incandescent so I ended up doing just what you said. Adding them until the breaker tripped. Which it did. 3 times. Had to divide them up. Told her we were going to start trading out for LED's as soon as we could.

I just think that white incandescent bulbs look better than white LEDs.

Yeah Home Depot recently had a program where you could turn in an incandescent string for $5 off an LED string. Not sure what the limit was.

If we hadn't been so crazy busy the week before Thanksgiving we'd have tried to take advantage of it.