It won’t be too long now before its time to tackle the dreaded Christmas lights. Like the writer of this blog, you may well have ignored all reasoning last year and decided, yet again, to take the bundling together storage approach. It would have been so much easier in the long run to have stored them away carefully, in their original box, taking care not to bang the bulbs together. The bundling and stuffing approach is a sure fire way of you developing Christmas tree light problems again this year.
If, as with years gone by, you decided to take the bundling and stuffing approach rather than storing them carefully, then the chances are, just like many thousands of people in similar circumstances, your lights will have developed a fault. It doesn’t take much. A loose bulb, a broken socket or a frayed wire is sometimes all it takes for the lights to come to grief and malfunction.
David Black of DB Fire Safety Ltd recommends that it’s so much easier to check your Christmas tree lights before they are decorating the tree. First of all, take some time to untangle the lights but remember not to pull the wire. A tried and tested method of detangling is to take hold of the plug and work it through the wires without letting go.
Now, we have the ‘hold your breath’ time and plug the lights in. Eureka!! Not a Eureka moment, eh? There are a couple of simple steps to take. First of all check the fuse. It’s easy to do. Just locate the fuse by opening up the plug with a small screwdriver. Replace the fuse with a replacement fuse which will have been supplied with the Christmas tree lights. Ensure the fuse is of the correct amp for the lights you are using.
Plug in the lights – still not working?? Don’t despair, there is something else you can do. More often than not, the problem is a burnt out bulb. Christmas tree lights have a specific wiring system. Sometimes, when just one bulb is not working then this will affect the whole set. Locate and replace the bulb and, hopefully, your Christmas tree lights will be working perfectly.
David Black of DB Fire Safety – www.dbfiresafety.co.uk – recommends you test your Christmas tree lights now in good time before you decorate the star of the show – the Christmas tree.