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Safety

Holiday Lighting

If used incorrectly, holiday lights can present a safety hazard in your home. To ensure a safe and happy holiday season, be sure to follow these guidelines:

• Make sure any light set you purchase has been approved by Underwriters Laboratories. The UL Listing Mark on a product label guarantees that representative samples of the product have been tested and comply with applicable UL safety requirements. Also, make sure you get the right set -- for indoor use, outdoor use or both.
• Do not overload electrical circuits. Circuits in older homes carry a maximum of 15 amps or 1,800 watts each. Circuits in most new homes can carry 20 amps or 2,400 watts each. To figure out your holiday lighting load, multiply the number of bulbs by the number of watts per bulb (if you're not sure about the wattage, play it safe and use 10 watts per bulb in your calculations). Be sure to include house lamps, appliances and other electrical equipment on the same circuit.
• Before you decorate, check light sets for frayed wires, damaged sockets or cracked insulation. If you find defects, replace the entire set.
• Hot bulbs can ignite dry branches and other flamable decorations. Avoid fire by keeping your natural tree well watered and keeping extension cords and light sets away from the water. Light the tree only when you are at home and awake to enjoy it. Keep a fire extinguisher handy and your smoke detectors in good working order.
• Unplug indoor tree lights before watering the tree, and turn off all electrical decorations before leaving home or going to bed.
• For outdoor lighting, use a ground fault circuit interrupter on each circuit. If current leaks through frayed or damaged wires, the interrupter shuts it off. Most hardware stores carry these at a cost of $7 to $10.
• Be careful with ladders! Don't stand higher than the top two steps, and keep them at least ten feet away from overhead power lines.

Holiday lighting can add up on your November and December household power bill. But you can have a festive display for much less. Here's some things to think about as you plan your holiday decorations:

Energy Efficiency - Using the right fixtures and limiting the time the lights are on can save you big this holiday season. The following list is designed to help:

• Bulb Wattage: The large, traditional bulbs (may be labeled C-7 or C-9) use 4-10 watts per bulb. Mini-lights use about four tenths of a watt (0.4 Watt) per bulb, and the new LED lights use only four one-hundreths of a watt (0.04 Watt).
• Bulbs per String: The larger bulbs are usually sold 25 to a string, while the smaller bulb sets may have 35 to 200 bulbs per string. Icicle lights have 100 lights per 10-foot string. LED lights have 35-100 bulbs per string.
• Strings per House: The more lights you use, the more power you'll use. But whether you use only one light string or many, you'll be rewarded with a lower power bill if you use energy-efficient lights.
• Timing is Everything: You can reduce your energy use by running your outdoor lights on a timer pre-set for three to five hours and by using mirrors and tinsel around indoor lights to increase the lighting effects.