Christmas lights

[seamlyne]

I once saw a website devoted to Christmas lights: how to figure load, how many can be daisy chained, how to alter the strings - as in splicing or trimming to length. I went searching on Google to try to find it, but Google has been pre-empted entirely by retail websites and real information is hard to come by.

Anyone know the website I'm writing about? If not, how does one go about decorating one's house? The question that I'm specifically interested in just at this moment is altering the lead length and splicing strings of mini-lights together. I have a gap of a few feet between two points, and I'd like to bridge the gap without lights so it would seem logical to splice some wire in there to lengthen the space between lights. Also, when you get to the end of a run and you have three feet of lighted string left over, why not shorten the string, and if that's feasible how do you do it and keep the circuit going?

Christmas spirit's alive and well here, for the time being anyway...

- Wm in Kansas City

Measure with a micrometer
Mark with a crayon
Cut with an axe.

[HayZee518]

Those mini lights are daisy chained to make up for the 120 volts applied.
50 lamps across 120 volts = 2.4 volts per bulb. 100 lamps are 1.2 volts per bulb.Find out the current in one string. The current is constant in the string while the individual voltage drops on each bulb add up to 120 volts.
In a series circuit the applied voltage is equal to the individual voltage drops across each device and the current is constant.
In a parallel circuit, the voltage is constant while the current is the sum of the individual devices connected in the parallel circuits.