So- LED Christmas Lights this year. Not too thrilled with them.

[KittyWampus]

We're a business and have to decorate the front of the house.

Last several years we had the most beautiful snowflakes- clear plastic snowflakes encasing the white lights that sparkled. Got lots of compliments but sections of strands would always go out. Changing the fuse didn't help. It was nearly impossible to open the casing and replace seperate little bulbs. They were a major pain.

So this year we got new lights at a CVS Pharmacy on sale for $7.99 each. These are the multi-color larger bulbs and one strand has lit length of 14'.

The colors are too bright. They sort of have a high frequency flutter.

Maybe I'm just too attached by nostalgia to the old fashioned colored lights.

But the LED have so much going for them:

plastic so not breakable
long-lived
cheaper
use less energy

Maybe I should have gotten the clear/white LED lights.

[LibertyLover]

1. If you have a Target nearby, you might want to check out their selection of LEDs

My husband got several strings that look like the old-fashioned large-bulbed Christmas lights we both remember from our childhoods. And he got some 3-D snowflake LEDs that change color which look absolutely awesome. Granted these are just on our tree, but looking at it throught the window from outside, it looks really good. And the best thing is that we can have the tree lights on and still use our microwave. For some odd reason the living room outlet we plug the tree lights into and the microwave outlet in the kitchen are on the same circuit breaker and in years past with regular lights, if we had the tree on and forgot to turn it off before engaging the microwave, we popped the circuit breaker.

[KittyWampus]

2. Will check out Target. For next year. These lights were so cheap, I'd happily give them away

next year.

Thanks.

Maybe it was just *these* lights.

[hunter]

3. The flicker irritates the heck out of me.

I've got some commercial lights from Environmental Lights that are much better, but more expensive too:

http://www.environmentallights.com/categories/1004/led-christmas-lights

The commercial lights use special power supplies and connectors.

The biggest problems I've had with the less expensive residential lights from local stores is corrosion. The D.C. current and the low temperature of the lights can eat away wet metal contacts quickly. The least expensive LED lights I ever bought only lasted two Christmas seasons. I've got a couple of good incandescent strings that are at least ten years old.

Some of my commercial strings have been out more than a year now as garden lighting, and they still look fine.