1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:05,140 It’s that time of year again, the time where we embrace the meaning of the holidays by 2 00:00:05,140 --> 00:00:09,970 relentlessly spending our money at various shrines to consumerism around the world, and 3 00:00:09,970 --> 00:00:12,380 covering our homes in a superfluous amount of lights. 4 00:00:12,380 --> 00:00:15,550 I’m not so much a fan of the former, but I do like lights. 5 00:00:15,550 --> 00:00:18,739 And in this video, I’ll be showing you my favorite kind. 6 00:00:18,739 --> 00:00:21,909 This is the part where you say, “This isn’t what I thought the next video was going to 7 00:00:21,909 --> 00:00:23,259 be about!”, and you’re right. 8 00:00:23,259 --> 00:00:27,109 I just came back from a family trip and still have to finish that one up. 9 00:00:27,109 --> 00:00:30,529 For now, though, I want to show you a special kind of light. 10 00:00:30,529 --> 00:00:34,190 These lights seem to be fairly uncommon, which is a shame because the effect they produce 11 00:00:34,190 --> 00:00:36,670 is in my opinion unparalleled. 12 00:00:36,670 --> 00:00:38,170 As you shall soon see. 13 00:00:38,170 --> 00:00:39,890 First a few qualifiers. 14 00:00:39,890 --> 00:00:44,330 If I were to refer to these as Hmm hmm lights, I’d annoy a particular set of people. 15 00:00:44,330 --> 00:00:48,000 And if I referred to them as hmm hm hm lights I’d annoy the opposite particular set of 16 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,000 people. 17 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,420 So I’ll take the British approach and refer to these as Fairy Lights. 18 00:00:52,420 --> 00:00:53,840 Now you’re both annoyed. 19 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,400 This video will focus mainly on incandescent fairy lights because the sets I’m talking 20 00:00:57,400 --> 00:00:59,370 about fall under that category. 21 00:00:59,370 --> 00:01:01,630 So first, some general info. 22 00:01:01,630 --> 00:01:06,640 Note that this is from an American perspective where fairy lights run at 120 volts. 23 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:11,600 Incandescent fairy lights of this style tend to be constructed as cheaply as possible. 24 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,439 The wiring is done point-to-point, with the lamp holders simply being a plastic tube thing 25 00:01:15,439 --> 00:01:18,939 with the wires just sorta poking up through the bottom and being held to the sides. 26 00:01:18,939 --> 00:01:21,220 The lamps are equally primitive. 27 00:01:21,220 --> 00:01:24,950 Just a glass envelope with a tiny filament suspended between two support wires that go 28 00:01:24,950 --> 00:01:27,159 straight out the bottom of the glass. 29 00:01:27,159 --> 00:01:31,619 A removable plastic base holds the glass with the wires bent up the sides, and it lines 30 00:01:31,619 --> 00:01:35,439 up with the lamp holder, which presses the wires of the bulb into the wires at the sides 31 00:01:35,439 --> 00:01:36,469 of the base. 32 00:01:36,469 --> 00:01:41,219 A set of 100 lights is typically made of two series circuits of 50 lights each, with the 33 00:01:41,219 --> 00:01:43,020 lights running at about 2.4 volts. 34 00:01:43,020 --> 00:01:47,499 If you remove a light from the string, that opens the circuit, and half the strand goes 35 00:01:47,499 --> 00:01:48,499 out. 36 00:01:48,499 --> 00:01:50,689 This is the cause of much frustration, let me tell you. 37 00:01:50,689 --> 00:01:54,709 But, to prevent a burnt out bulb from opening the circuit and thus killing half the string, 38 00:01:54,709 --> 00:01:57,319 the bulbs are constructed with a clever little feature. 39 00:01:57,319 --> 00:02:01,609 At the base of the bulb, wrapped around the support wires, is a little wire loop. 40 00:02:01,609 --> 00:02:05,409 This wire is coated with a weak insulator that will prevent current from flowing through 41 00:02:05,409 --> 00:02:08,530 it at the normally low operational voltage. 42 00:02:08,530 --> 00:02:13,650 But if the filament breaks, the full 120 volts is briefly present at the lamp because none 43 00:02:13,650 --> 00:02:17,370 of the other lamps are receiving current and dropping the voltage down. 44 00:02:17,370 --> 00:02:21,490 The insulation around the wire loop will usually break down with such a high voltage, which 45 00:02:21,490 --> 00:02:26,380 turns it into a shunt, thus shorting out the lamp and continuing the circuit. 46 00:02:26,380 --> 00:02:30,900 This is known as an antifuse, and I said the insulation usually breaks down because we 47 00:02:30,900 --> 00:02:35,010 have all had a set of lights that just refuses to work for no apparent reason, and this is 48 00:02:35,010 --> 00:02:36,130 a possible culprit. 49 00:02:36,130 --> 00:02:41,040 That’s what light repair devices are used for--by detecting voltage at each of the lamps, 50 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:45,590 you can travel along the string to find out which light is the last to receive voltage, 51 00:02:45,590 --> 00:02:47,970 and thus which one is likely the cause of a fault. 52 00:02:47,970 --> 00:02:52,410 As an unfortunate side-effect of this feature, each shorted lamp increases the voltage across 53 00:02:52,410 --> 00:02:53,940 the remaining lamps. 54 00:02:53,940 --> 00:02:59,640 With 49 operational lamps instead of fifty, each lamp now gets about 2.45 volts. 55 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:04,610 They’re rated at 2.5 volts, at least in these sets, so one or two burnt out lights 56 00:03:04,610 --> 00:03:06,020 won’t be too harmful. 57 00:03:06,020 --> 00:03:10,680 But with only 45 lights working, each remaining light gets 2.66 volts. 58 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:14,310 With 40 operational lamps, the rest get a whole 3 volts. 59 00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:18,790 Each burnt out light makes the rest work harder, and thus increases the likelihood of future 60 00:03:18,790 --> 00:03:19,920 lamp failures. 61 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:24,280 Eventually, the set will experience a rapid cascade failure of all the lamps, turning 62 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:28,020 the whole string into a short circuit, and the fuse in the plug will blow. 63 00:03:28,020 --> 00:03:32,160 It’s for this reason that you should replace a burnt out lamp as soon as possible in a 64 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:33,700 string of miniature fairy lights. 65 00:03:33,700 --> 00:03:36,751 So, now that you understand the operation of fairy lights a little more, let’s get 66 00:03:36,751 --> 00:03:38,770 to the subject of this video. 67 00:03:38,770 --> 00:03:42,631 Most conventional strands of lights come with a couple of flasher bulbs, identified by a 68 00:03:42,631 --> 00:03:43,740 red tip. 69 00:03:43,740 --> 00:03:47,370 These contain a bimetallic strip that reacts to the heat from the filament, causing it 70 00:03:47,370 --> 00:03:48,760 to bend. 71 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:53,210 After a certain amount of time, the bimetallic strip bends sufficiently to break the circuit. 72 00:03:53,210 --> 00:03:57,380 Once it cools down, the circuit will be reconnected, and the filament will re-light, which reheats 73 00:03:57,380 --> 00:03:59,920 the bimetallic strip, and it goes out again. 74 00:03:59,920 --> 00:04:03,070 This repeats over and over and over again. 75 00:04:03,070 --> 00:04:06,500 When you replace any lamp with one of these suckers, it will cause half of the light strand 76 00:04:06,500 --> 00:04:09,910 to flash because it will break the entire circuit once the bimetallic strip has warmed 77 00:04:09,910 --> 00:04:12,220 up, and will reconnect it once it cools. 78 00:04:12,220 --> 00:04:16,110 I’ve always found this to be a rather dumb looking effect, and I think most people agree 79 00:04:16,110 --> 00:04:18,980 because these flasher bulbs seem almost never to be used. 80 00:04:18,980 --> 00:04:23,090 But, there are some strands of lights that use a different kind of flasher bulb, and 81 00:04:23,090 --> 00:04:24,580 use many of them. 82 00:04:24,580 --> 00:04:29,280 These seem to be sold as “twinkling” lights, and their approach is completely different. 83 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:32,940 These are the subject of this video, and I really really like them. 84 00:04:32,940 --> 00:04:37,389 These strands use many flashers, typically every fifth light, and these flashers don’t 85 00:04:37,389 --> 00:04:39,600 break the circuit when the bimetallic stip bends. 86 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:42,350 Instead, they short out when the strip bends. 87 00:04:42,350 --> 00:04:43,570 This does two things. 88 00:04:43,570 --> 00:04:47,560 First, the current bypasses the filament as it takes the path of least resistance, and 89 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:48,560 the bulb goes out. 90 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:52,090 But, it also increases the voltage to the rest of the strand. 91 00:04:52,090 --> 00:04:55,639 When you first power one of these sets up, the entire light strand is illuminated. 92 00:04:55,639 --> 00:04:59,130 But as the flashers heat up, they start to randomly go in and out. 93 00:04:59,130 --> 00:05:02,920 This is a great effect on its own, but because they short themselves out when they’re not 94 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,340 lit, they slightly affect the brightness of the entire strand. 95 00:05:06,340 --> 00:05:10,780 This is most easily seen with a new set still wrapped together, because this entire bundle 96 00:05:10,780 --> 00:05:12,880 has no flashers among it. 97 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:14,610 Notice how it shimmers. 98 00:05:14,610 --> 00:05:18,820 This happens because the voltage across these lamps is constantly changing as the flashers 99 00:05:18,820 --> 00:05:20,050 do their thing. 100 00:05:20,050 --> 00:05:23,560 Yet another great side effect of the way these work is a gradual transition in brightness 101 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:25,200 with each flasher. 102 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:30,260 Normally, flasher bulbs produce a very sudden on-off effect since the entire strand goes 103 00:05:30,260 --> 00:05:31,880 on and off at once. 104 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:36,090 Because the strand as a whole sees 120 volts when it first receives power, the filaments 105 00:05:36,090 --> 00:05:38,830 nearly instantly achieve full brightness. 106 00:05:38,830 --> 00:05:43,020 The voltage between them doesn’t drop to 2.4 volts until they’re all hot, as the 107 00:05:43,020 --> 00:05:47,070 resistance of an incandescent lamp is about 15 times greater when it’s hot compared 108 00:05:47,070 --> 00:05:48,639 to when it’s cold. 109 00:05:48,639 --> 00:05:53,400 But since the lamps in a twinkling set only see between 2.4 and 3 volts across them as 110 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:57,760 they twinkle, they don’t have 120 volts to get them started, so they don’t suddenly 111 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,310 turn on and off like a conventional set. 112 00:06:00,310 --> 00:06:05,730 See, when you apply just 2.4 volts to a normal bulb, it lights up very slowly compared to 113 00:06:05,730 --> 00:06:09,960 just plugging a set into the wall, because the lower voltage will pass less initial current 114 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,880 through the filament, and thus heat it more slowly. 115 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,760 This creates a more gradual turn-on for the flashers which I find very nice. 116 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:19,730 Now, you might ask, why am I making this video? 117 00:06:19,730 --> 00:06:23,890 The short answer is, I find these sets of fairy lights to be nothing short of delightful. 118 00:06:23,890 --> 00:06:29,419 They’re a nice enhancement to a static display without being annoying, and their randomness 119 00:06:29,419 --> 00:06:30,780 is appealing. 120 00:06:30,780 --> 00:06:35,720 Though animated LED based strands are available, they don’t come close to these in my opinion. 121 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:37,980 And, these sets are harder and harder to find. 122 00:06:37,980 --> 00:06:40,919 In fact, I don’t think many people realize they exist. 123 00:06:40,919 --> 00:06:43,010 I rarely see people using them. 124 00:06:43,010 --> 00:06:47,570 The only place in my area that seems to reliably stock them every year is Menards. 125 00:06:47,570 --> 00:06:50,780 Now if you’re not an American midwesterner you probably don’t know Menards, but they’re 126 00:06:50,780 --> 00:06:55,500 a local chain of hardware stores, essentially a larger, quite a bit more eccentric version 127 00:06:55,500 --> 00:06:58,920 of the Home Depot or Lowes, complete with a banjo-filled jingle. 128 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:02,700 ♪ Save Big Money at Menards! ♪ 129 00:07:02,860 --> 00:07:06,980 ACE hardware also had a small number of sets for sale, but clearly they don’t sell too 130 00:07:06,990 --> 00:07:10,830 well as they’re kind of left alone among dozens of other offerings. 131 00:07:10,830 --> 00:07:13,350 The Home Depot doesn’t appear to sell them, and neither does Walmart. 132 00:07:13,350 --> 00:07:16,370 I don’t have a Lowes near me, otherwise I’d have checked. 133 00:07:16,370 --> 00:07:20,430 If anyone knows of other places you can find these, please let us know in the comments. 134 00:07:20,430 --> 00:07:24,220 It may be that they’re uncommon because the rest of the lights are designed to tolerate 135 00:07:24,220 --> 00:07:27,060 the increased voltage the flashers let through. 136 00:07:27,060 --> 00:07:31,500 They aren’t your standard 2.4 volt bulbs, in fact they’re 2.9 volts, 137 00:07:31,500 --> 00:07:33,740 a somewhat rare rating. 138 00:07:33,780 --> 00:07:38,230 This high voltage rating allows them to spend most of their existence being underrun; they 139 00:07:38,230 --> 00:07:43,300 will see their rated voltage only in the rare instance that nine or more flashers along the 50 light 140 00:07:43,300 --> 00:07:48,729 circuit are currently in the off state, which virtually never happens with 10 total flashers. 141 00:07:48,729 --> 00:07:51,880 On average they only see 2.66 volts. 142 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:55,180 And while we’re on the subject of fairy lights, allow me to express a few grievances. 143 00:07:55,180 --> 00:07:59,350 This, I’m sure, is more preference than anything, but there’s only one retailer 144 00:07:59,350 --> 00:08:03,681 near me, that’s ACE hardware, that sells what I consider to be the “correct” color 145 00:08:03,681 --> 00:08:09,960 combination of simply Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue for multi-colored light strands. 146 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:14,340 Nearly everyone else uses orange instead of yellow, and adds purple or pink. 147 00:08:14,340 --> 00:08:16,730 Sometimes there’s even a cyanish blue in there. 148 00:08:16,730 --> 00:08:20,230 I’m most bothered by the replacement of yellow with orange because yellow is a very 149 00:08:20,230 --> 00:08:23,380 bright color and provides contrast from the others. 150 00:08:23,380 --> 00:08:25,570 Orange is too dark and similar to red. 151 00:08:25,570 --> 00:08:27,340 But that’s just my humble opinion. 152 00:08:27,340 --> 00:08:32,870 Also, I really don’t care for most multicolored LED fairy lights offered today, largely because 153 00:08:32,870 --> 00:08:34,930 of the way they are implemented. 154 00:08:34,930 --> 00:08:40,180 Perhaps I’m out of touch, but I am not a fan of the monochromatic blue LEDs used in them. 155 00:08:40,180 --> 00:08:45,460 They produce a visual effect for me of a fuzzy halo and are almost hard to focus me eyes on. 156 00:08:45,460 --> 00:08:49,640 In fact, I find all of the colors but red to be a bit jarring precisely because they 157 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:50,779 are monochromatic. 158 00:08:50,779 --> 00:08:55,710 I’d like to see a set of multicolored LED lights made with entirely warm white LEDs 159 00:08:55,710 --> 00:08:59,040 but with tinted diffusers just like in the good old days. 160 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:00,960 I think these would be easier on the eyes. 161 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:03,070 In fact, that gives me an idea… 162 00:09:03,070 --> 00:09:06,339 I’m gonna do some experimentation and report back in another video. 163 00:09:06,339 --> 00:09:10,670 In general I think LED fairy lights have gotten very good lately, and the warm white color 164 00:09:10,670 --> 00:09:15,160 is becoming better every year, plus I think applications like icicle lights or snowflake 165 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,750 type things are a good application for cool white LEDs. 166 00:09:18,750 --> 00:09:23,570 I particularly like the fact that since they use so little power you can string many sets 167 00:09:23,570 --> 00:09:26,370 together without worrying about capacity. 168 00:09:26,370 --> 00:09:30,649 But I don’t like the fact that they’re constructed just like incandescents sets. 169 00:09:30,649 --> 00:09:34,590 In fact, I purchased this set of lights just to confirm my suspicions, and though I don’t 170 00:09:34,590 --> 00:09:38,460 want to suppose this is convention, I find it rather funny that these are just regular 171 00:09:38,460 --> 00:09:42,850 LEDs with their pins shoved down a regular lamp holder and bent up the sides, with the 172 00:09:42,850 --> 00:09:47,060 rest of the light strand design being essentially identical to an incandescent one, aside from 173 00:09:47,060 --> 00:09:50,960 this little doodad which I’m assuming is a diode and capacitor to limit current. 174 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:56,640 I know other sets use fancier diffusers with other shapes, but the sockets are usually pretty similar 175 00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:01,280 But on that note, it seems nearly every LED set I’ve encountered is only half-wave rectified 176 00:10:01,290 --> 00:10:05,790 with no smoothing at all, which makes them flicker like mad. 177 00:10:05,790 --> 00:10:10,270 Spin them around and you can see that they’re lit perhaps only 10% of the time, owing to 178 00:10:10,270 --> 00:10:13,480 them only being lit at the very peak of the positive cycle. 179 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:17,030 Anyway, I’m all for energy efficient lighting as anyone who follows this channel knows, 180 00:10:17,030 --> 00:10:21,899 but I haven’t seen an LED set that can duplicate this twinkling effect so well. 181 00:10:21,899 --> 00:10:26,360 Most of them are animated strings like this, but they don’t address each bulb individually 182 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,170 so it’s an unsubtle and predictable effect. 183 00:10:29,170 --> 00:10:34,490 I have seen some applications of prelit figurines with a small percentage of LEDs that do twinkle, 184 00:10:34,490 --> 00:10:38,300 but if memory serves the individual LEDs flashed at a steady rate. 185 00:10:38,300 --> 00:10:41,580 They weren’t all the same flashing rate, so they drifted apart from one another, but 186 00:10:41,580 --> 00:10:44,420 there was no randomness in each one. 187 00:10:44,420 --> 00:10:46,450 Also the rest of the lights were unaffected. 188 00:10:46,450 --> 00:10:49,900 I’m afraid I’ll have to just be a fuddy duddy a little longer and keep buying a few 189 00:10:49,900 --> 00:10:51,330 backup sets of these each year. 190 00:10:51,330 --> 00:10:53,290 I’ve got 5 extra now. 191 00:10:53,290 --> 00:10:55,150 And no, I don’t have a problem. 192 00:10:55,150 --> 00:10:58,020 Thanks for watching, and I hope you found this video interesting. 193 00:10:58,020 --> 00:11:01,970 Like I said, I want these lights to survive and I want more people to know about them. 194 00:11:01,970 --> 00:11:06,010 I’ll leave you a view of the lights on my balcony so you can enjoy them. 195 00:11:06,010 --> 00:11:09,010 If you’re new to this channel and like what you saw, please consider subscribing! 196 00:11:09,010 --> 00:11:13,570 Of course, thank you to all of my Patreon supporters for keeping this channel possible. 197 00:11:13,570 --> 00:11:15,230 You really make all the difference. 198 00:11:15,230 --> 00:11:18,691 You can support this channel through the link that will appear shortly on your screen, or 199 00:11:18,691 --> 00:11:20,110 by visiting the link down below. 200 00:11:20,110 --> 00:11:23,940 Thank you for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time. 201 00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:46,940 (Strained) Oh, god. 202 00:11:48,860 --> 00:11:50,600 Those were very hot.