Why Christmas Lights Trip Breakers and How Can To Fix It
When you string Christmas lights together, you’re creating a festive spirit throughout your home. Perhaps you even want to share that energy with your neighborhood by stringing them together outside, having them shine in Christmasy colors for everyone to see.
But what you don’t want to experience is them suddenly going out and taking out much of the rest of your house too due to them tripping your breaker.
Scenarios in Which Christmas Lights Trip Breakers
There are three common scenarios in which your festive lights could play a role in tripping your breakers.
Overloaded Circuit
One of the most common ones is the overloading of your circuit. In other words, too much power’s going through that circuit relative to what it’s designed to handle.
Short in the Wiring
A short in your wiring won’t normally be directly connected to your holiday lights causing your breaker to trip. However, if you do have that short and combine it with Christmas light usage, the added stress on this weak point could.
Old Breaker
An aging breaker trips more easily in general, and that means that it’s also more sensitive to the greater power load that festive lights may apply to it.
How Do Circuit Breakers Work?
It’s usually annoying when a circuit breaker’s tripped, whether that’s caused by your holiday lights or otherwise, but it’s important to remember that it’s designed to keep you safe. That’s because if it didn’t do its job and instead allowed that excess current to continue unimpeded, the chances of overheated wires, damaged electronics and even fire go up significantly.
If your Christmas lights have caused a tripped breaker in your home, find your breaker panel and ensure that it’s set to “off” before you flip it back to “on,” and your electricity should return. However, also analyze what likely caused this to happen.
How To Fix or Prevent Christmas Lights Tripping Your Breakers
There are several things that you can do to fix your lights tripping your breakers or prevent this from happening.
Plug Them Into Different Circuits
One of the best ways to limit circuit breaking is to spread out what your holiday lights are plugged into. In other words, plug them into different outlets that are associated with different breakers.
Also keep in mind that a surge protector won’t help stop your breaker from being tripped for this reason as it’s designed to handle voltage spikes that originated outside your home.
Use Lights Designed for Their Location
Are your lights designed for where they’re being used? Most importantly, are you using indoor lights outside? The main issue in doing that is that water from our storms and cold weather can cause shorts and other issues, which could trip your breakers.
Using outdoor lights inside may cause unrelated issues, such as overly bright illumination and issues with how heavy they are, but that scenario won’t increase your breaker-tripping risk.
Set Your Christmas Lights on Timers
Setting your holiday lights on timers will result in your breaker being tripped less often simply because they’ll be on for less time.
Are Sprinklers Spraying Your Christmas Lights?
Avoid having sprinklers spray your festive lights. If this can’t be avoided, ensure that your lights are turned off, whether manually or via a timer, when your sprinklers are on.
Don’t String So Many Sets of Lights End-To-End
Generally, don’t string more than three sets of these lights end-to-end although you can also check the accompanying instructions to see if they say that a higher number of yours can be safely strung together.
Consider Using LEDs
Traditional Christmas lights tend to use significantly more power than ones that use LEDs. More specifically, one traditional Christmas bulb usually needs 5-10 watts to illuminate as compared to the 0.05-0.1 watts necessary to power an LED light. Asking your electrical system to use so much less power to provide your home with Christmas color will have a significant impact on how often your breaker is tripped.
Be Wary of Stapling Lights
If you have outside lights that you’re stapling to secure and space them, be careful as puncturing the cord can cause shorts, a risk that would then be exacerbated when rainwater gets inside.
Look Out for Bad Bulbs
Bad bulbs can cause situations in which a current receives no resistance or its flow is irregular; arcing could even occur. In any case, if you have numerous faulty bulbs on the same string, the odds of them cumulatively tripping your breaker go up, even more so if the circuit’s already overloaded.
You can usually check yours by using a Christmas light tester and seeing where it lights up or a voltage detector to determine where a section of the cord’s dead. Another option, if possible, is to switch out each bulb to see which one’s the culprit. You can also look for physical cracks and discoloration. Note that with traditional holiday lights, one burnt-out bulb will normally affect the rest of that string.
Use Outdoor Outlet Stakes
If you use outdoor outlet stakes carefully, to spread out your festive lights and other electricity-using devices among your circuits, they can also help prevent your holiday lights from tripping your breaker. Another benefit is that these stakes are designed for outdoor use, so the impact of wet weather will be lessened.
Install Outdoor Outlets
You could also get a permanent outdoor outlet installed, such as just below your roof’s overhang, with a dedicated breaker to help reduce your holiday lights’ demands on any given circuit.
We’ll Handle Your Christmas Lights’ Malarkey
Don’t put up with any malarkey from your festive lights. Call Sarasota Mister Sparky, and we’ll be glad to handle things, to help reduce how often your breaker’s being tripped. We serve homes and businesses throughout Sarasota, FL, and we’re looking forward to speaking with you about how we can brighten your holiday season.
