A look at the latest types of Christmas Lights that will be coming to a street near you soon
London’s 300 Garden Squares provide a wonderful backdrop for adding some festive cheer around the holidays. We hope the below tips and tricks make it easier for Garden Committees to add their own lights, as always, we are a button click away should you want a fee consultation.
Tip 1: Use Elevated Waterproof Boxes for Transformers
Nearly all over the counter Christmas Lights run on12 volts, which means between the plug and the lights there will frequently be a transformer. Many transformers are directly built into the plugs, making them too bulky to fit inside waterproof sockets.
The best solution we’ve found is to use weatherproof boxes with at least an IP54 rating. Our favourite is the Masterplug Range, specifically because they can be mounted on posts (with 240volt electrics, off the ground is always better than on the ground).
The Masterplug boxes also have drill-outs for a Glanded Entry. Whilst they advertise running the mains cable through the central 5-wire terminal, we always find this unnecessarily fiddly – you end up with a thick 240 wire and lots of thin 12v wires in the same section making it difficult to arrange and close. We prefer to create a permanent glanded entry for the 240v wire, leaving the main cable-junction free for 12v wires.
Tip 2: If the Cable is 240volt- armour it!
Lots of Gardens will suffer significant footfall in areas where you might want to run 240v cables, presenting a hazard. Other considerations can be the risk of pets / wild animals chewing the wire, either harming themselves or damaging the cable to make it a greater risk to others.
The solution in most instances is to use armoured cable. Armoured Cable is wrapped in an earthed steel sheath that grounds the entire circumference of the cable, meaning that if the cable is for knicked (by a rogue spade / fox’s tooth) the chances of electrocution are drastically lower. Armoured cable is heavy, less flexible, and requires more complicated joins at either end (to earth the armoured sheath).
Our typical deployment is to use a 3-core, 2.5mmSWA (armoured) cable, running to two junction boxes. From one of those boxes we run a short (<50mm) length to an outdoor socket, and from the other a short join to the elevated Masterplug box, from where the Electrical Cords can be run.
Side Tip: To save time and money we frequently buy SWA cable with the glands already added. Adding Glands, especially in a damp / cold Garden, can take even an experienced electrician 15 minutes a time (or 30 minutes per cable), so it’s frequently most cost effective to buy armoured cable with the glands already attached.
Tip 3: Test your Extension Cords
Socket testers can be purchased for roughly £10online, will help ensure your extension cords are wired correctly, and provide a button for testing the circuit’s RCD (to ensure it trips correctly when shorted).
Important Note: Socket Testers, whilst frequently used by Electricians, are not a certified piece of testing equipment. For full peace of mind, have an electrician review all works.
Tip 4: Extend each Lighting Circuit close-to the maximum tolerance of its Transformer
Having gone to all of the above hassle to get 4plug sockets to your Christmas Light location, it’s worth making maximum use of those plug sockets.
Most 12volt Christmas Lights are extendable, this goes for cheap led string lights, to meteor lights, right up to expensive systems like GOVEE.
It is far cheaper, and less visually obtrusive to join the string lights on multiple Trees together using a
Tip 5: Plan Ahead and Have Sockets Where you Need Them
Ultimately no amount of extension leads and waterproof boxes can make up for a chronic lack of electrical points.
Tip 6: H-Frames are for Before and After Christmas
Whether putting up, taking down, or storing Festive Lights, having H-Frames makes the job much easier.
Our typical approach is to wind the lights onto the H-Frame from finish (the last LED bulb) to start(the bit that connects to the transformer plug).That way when you start putting up your lights you can simply unwind the lights as you go. It also makes testing the lights much easier.
Tip 7: Large Storage Boxes
When it comes to storing Festive Lights between seasons we strongly recommend storing the lights in large plastic boxes, to prevent rodents or general degradation from preventing reuse of the lights.
We typically pickup 106 Litre Tote Boxes from Costco, as they are large enough to store 10,000 LEDs worth of strings at a time, and stackable.
Tip 8: Timers / SmartSwitches
If you don’t have a master timer on your Electrical circuit, but still want your lights to only come on in the Evening – don’t despair.
If your Garden has Wifi, you can easily install smart switches in your Garden Sockets allowing them to be turned-on and off remotely / via a timer. Our favourite options currently are the Shelly Plus 1(pictured) and Sonoff MiniR4.
If you don’t have Garden wide wifi, you can still pickup individual socket-timers to place in front of the lights transformers within a waterproof box (this is where Tip 4 can also save you a lot of money).
Tip 9: Cable Ties
Whilst perhaps a more obvious tip, Cable Ties (or amore natural alternative like Cotton String) are an important part of any Christmas Light setup. If comfortable with using plastic, we typically recommend buying a large pack of cable ties in advance of any lights setup.
Be sure not to tie anything too tight to the tree to prevent girdling.
Tip 10: Gaurd Against Foxes/ Rodents
Whilst repairing Festive Lights is usually fairly straight forward, it can be heart-breaking to see a display ruing because a pesky Fox, Squirrel or Rat has decided to chew through a cable.
Our typical advice is to douse more important string-lights in a bitter-apple solution prior to putting them up, and laying prickle-strip matts around the base of such features to stop foxes from treating them as an evening’s entertainment.
Tip 11: Don't Overspend
Given festive lights run on a relative safe lowvoltage, and lights in your Garden may well bedamaged by Foxes or overly-excited youngresidents, it is best not to spend too much on anysingle set of lights. For String Lights we typicallywork on a basis of spending no more than £4 per100 LEDs.
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