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Tips for Putting Christmas Lights On Your House

As you prepare your home for the holidays ahead, ensuring the safety of your Christmas lights is important. Powerworks Electric wants to help you deck the halls safely with these easy light safety tips.

  • Use the Right Lights for Interior and Exterior Decorating—Not all Christmas lights are the same. Some lights are rated for outdoor use, complete with resistance to water and the elements. Indoor lights will not survive outdoors. Double check your lights’ intended location before you start wrapping them around your tree. The same principle applies to any extension cords you use with your lights. Never use your indoor extension cords outdoors. Even when using outdoor rated extension cords, avoid placing them where the junction of cords could come in contact with snow, ice, or puddles.
  • Check the Condition of Your Lights—One bad bulb can cause an entire strand to fail. In addition to your lights not functioning, a broken bulb can be a fire or shock hazard. In some cases, you can replace a bad bulb and salvage the strand. Most strings of lights come with a few replacement bulbs. If not, you can purchase replacements at your local hardware store or online. When in doubt about the condition of your lights, we recommend investing in a new strand. The only fire you need this season should be in your fireplace.
  • Choose a Safe Ladder—Falling off your ladder and getting injured while decorating will limit your holiday fun. When decorating outside, use a ladder that is tall enough to reach without straining or hanging off the ladder. Also, use a wood or fiberglass ladder because metal ladders put you at risk of electrical shock.
  • Plug in Wisely—Avoid plugging more than three strands of lights together unless you are using LED lights with different capacity. Your lights should always be plugged into an outlet with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI). A GFCI will ensure the circuit is shut down if the current is overloaded. Using a proper GFCI outlet with your lights will help prevent a possible fire. If you do not have GFCI outlets where you are planning on hanging lights up, give us a call. We can install GFCI outlets to keep your home safe this holiday season.

Christmas lights really capture the magic of Christmas, but never forget to use them safely. Start untangling your Christmas lights and give Powerworks Electric a call if you need any electrical support this season.

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