WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 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 00:00:05.140 --> 00:00:09.970 relentlessly spending our money at various shrines to consumerism around the world, and 00:00:09.970 --> 00:00:12.380 covering our homes in a superfluous amount of lights. 00:00:12.380 --> 00:00:15.550 I’m not so much a fan of the former, but I do like lights. 00:00:15.550 --> 00:00:18.739 And in this video, I’ll be showing you my favorite kind. 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 00:00:21.909 --> 00:00:23.259 be about!”, and you’re right. 00:00:23.259 --> 00:00:27.109 I just came back from a family trip and still have to finish that one up. 00:00:27.109 --> 00:00:30.529 For now, though, I want to show you a special kind of light. 00:00:30.529 --> 00:00:34.190 These lights seem to be fairly uncommon, which is a shame because the effect they produce 00:00:34.190 --> 00:00:36.670 is in my opinion unparalleled. 00:00:36.670 --> 00:00:38.170 As you shall soon see. 00:00:38.170 --> 00:00:39.890 First a few qualifiers. 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. 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 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:49.000 people. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.420 So I’ll take the British approach and refer to these as Fairy Lights. 00:00:52.420 --> 00:00:53.840 Now you’re both annoyed. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:57.400 This video will focus mainly on incandescent fairy lights because the sets I’m talking 00:00:57.400 --> 00:00:59.370 about fall under that category. 00:00:59.370 --> 00:01:01.630 So first, some general info. 00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:06.640 Note that this is from an American perspective where fairy lights run at 120 volts. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:11.600 Incandescent fairy lights of this style tend to be constructed as cheaply as possible. 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 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:18.939 with the wires just sorta poking up through the bottom and being held to the sides. 00:01:18.939 --> 00:01:21.220 The lamps are equally primitive. 00:01:21.220 --> 00:01:24.950 Just a glass envelope with a tiny filament suspended between two support wires that go 00:01:24.950 --> 00:01:27.159 straight out the bottom of the glass. 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 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 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:36.469 of the base. 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 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:43.020 lights running at about 2.4 volts. 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 00:01:47.499 --> 00:01:48.499 out. 00:01:48.499 --> 00:01:50.689 This is the cause of much frustration, let me tell you. 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, 00:01:54.709 --> 00:01:57.319 the bulbs are constructed with a clever little feature. 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:01.609 At the base of the bulb, wrapped around the support wires, is a little wire loop. 00:02:01.609 --> 00:02:05.409 This wire is coated with a weak insulator that will prevent current from flowing through 00:02:05.409 --> 00:02:08.530 it at the normally low operational voltage. 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 00:02:13.650 --> 00:02:17.370 of the other lamps are receiving current and dropping the voltage down. 00:02:17.370 --> 00:02:21.490 The insulation around the wire loop will usually break down with such a high voltage, which 00:02:21.490 --> 00:02:26.380 turns it into a shunt, thus shorting out the lamp and continuing the circuit. 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:30.900 This is known as an antifuse, and I said the insulation usually breaks down because we 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 00:02:35.010 --> 00:02:36.130 a possible culprit. 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, 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, 00:02:45.590 --> 00:02:47.970 and thus which one is likely the cause of a fault. 00:02:47.970 --> 00:02:52.410 As an unfortunate side-effect of this feature, each shorted lamp increases the voltage across 00:02:52.410 --> 00:02:53.940 the remaining lamps. 00:02:53.940 --> 00:02:59.640 With 49 operational lamps instead of fifty, each lamp now gets about 2.45 volts. 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 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:06.020 won’t be too harmful. 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:10.680 But with only 45 lights working, each remaining light gets 2.66 volts. 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:14.310 With 40 operational lamps, the rest get a whole 3 volts. 00:03:14.310 --> 00:03:18.790 Each burnt out light makes the rest work harder, and thus increases the likelihood of future 00:03:18.790 --> 00:03:19.920 lamp failures. 00:03:19.920 --> 00:03:24.280 Eventually, the set will experience a rapid cascade failure of all the lamps, turning 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:28.020 the whole string into a short circuit, and the fuse in the plug will blow. 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 00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:33.700 string of miniature fairy lights. 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:36.751 So, now that you understand the operation of fairy lights a little more, let’s get 00:03:36.751 --> 00:03:38.770 to the subject of this video. 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:42.631 Most conventional strands of lights come with a couple of flasher bulbs, identified by a 00:03:42.631 --> 00:03:43.740 red tip. 00:03:43.740 --> 00:03:47.370 These contain a bimetallic strip that reacts to the heat from the filament, causing it 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:48.760 to bend. 00:03:48.760 --> 00:03:53.210 After a certain amount of time, the bimetallic strip bends sufficiently to break the circuit. 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 00:03:57.380 --> 00:03:59.920 the bimetallic strip, and it goes out again. 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:03.070 This repeats over and over and over again. 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 00:04:06.500 --> 00:04:09.910 to flash because it will break the entire circuit once the bimetallic strip has warmed 00:04:09.910 --> 00:04:12.220 up, and will reconnect it once it cools. 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 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:18.980 because these flasher bulbs seem almost never to be used. 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:23.090 But, there are some strands of lights that use a different kind of flasher bulb, and 00:04:23.090 --> 00:04:24.580 use many of them. 00:04:24.580 --> 00:04:29.280 These seem to be sold as “twinkling” lights, and their approach is completely different. 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:32.940 These are the subject of this video, and I really really like them. 00:04:32.940 --> 00:04:37.389 These strands use many flashers, typically every fifth light, and these flashers don’t 00:04:37.389 --> 00:04:39.600 break the circuit when the bimetallic stip bends. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.350 Instead, they short out when the strip bends. 00:04:42.350 --> 00:04:43.570 This does two things. 00:04:43.570 --> 00:04:47.560 First, the current bypasses the filament as it takes the path of least resistance, and 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:48.560 the bulb goes out. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:52.090 But, it also increases the voltage to the rest of the strand. 00:04:52.090 --> 00:04:55.639 When you first power one of these sets up, the entire light strand is illuminated. 00:04:55.639 --> 00:04:59.130 But as the flashers heat up, they start to randomly go in and out. 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 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:06.340 lit, they slightly affect the brightness of the entire strand. 00:05:06.340 --> 00:05:10.780 This is most easily seen with a new set still wrapped together, because this entire bundle 00:05:10.780 --> 00:05:12.880 has no flashers among it. 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:14.610 Notice how it shimmers. 00:05:14.610 --> 00:05:18.820 This happens because the voltage across these lamps is constantly changing as the flashers 00:05:18.820 --> 00:05:20.050 do their thing. 00:05:20.050 --> 00:05:23.560 Yet another great side effect of the way these work is a gradual transition in brightness 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:25.200 with each flasher. 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:30.260 Normally, flasher bulbs produce a very sudden on-off effect since the entire strand goes 00:05:30.260 --> 00:05:31.880 on and off at once. 00:05:31.880 --> 00:05:36.090 Because the strand as a whole sees 120 volts when it first receives power, the filaments 00:05:36.090 --> 00:05:38.830 nearly instantly achieve full brightness. 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 00:05:43.020 --> 00:05:47.070 resistance of an incandescent lamp is about 15 times greater when it’s hot compared 00:05:47.070 --> 00:05:48.639 to when it’s cold. 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 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 00:05:57.760 --> 00:06:00.310 turn on and off like a conventional set. 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 00:06:05.730 --> 00:06:09.960 just plugging a set into the wall, because the lower voltage will pass less initial current 00:06:09.960 --> 00:06:12.880 through the filament, and thus heat it more slowly. 00:06:12.880 --> 00:06:16.760 This creates a more gradual turn-on for the flashers which I find very nice. 00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:19.730 Now, you might ask, why am I making this video? 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. 00:06:23.890 --> 00:06:29.419 They’re a nice enhancement to a static display without being annoying, and their randomness 00:06:29.419 --> 00:06:30.780 is appealing. 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. 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:37.980 And, these sets are harder and harder to find. 00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:40.919 In fact, I don’t think many people realize they exist. 00:06:40.919 --> 00:06:43.010 I rarely see people using them. 00:06:43.010 --> 00:06:47.570 The only place in my area that seems to reliably stock them every year is Menards. 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 00:06:50.780 --> 00:06:55.500 a local chain of hardware stores, essentially a larger, quite a bit more eccentric version 00:06:55.500 --> 00:06:58.920 of the Home Depot or Lowes, complete with a banjo-filled jingle. 00:06:59.400 --> 00:07:02.700 ♪ Save Big Money at Menards! ♪ 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 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:10.830 well as they’re kind of left alone among dozens of other offerings. 00:07:10.830 --> 00:07:13.350 The Home Depot doesn’t appear to sell them, and neither does Walmart. 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:16.370 I don’t have a Lowes near me, otherwise I’d have checked. 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. 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 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:27.060 the increased voltage the flashers let through. 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:31.500 They aren’t your standard 2.4 volt bulbs, in fact they’re 2.9 volts, 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:33.740 a somewhat rare rating. 00:07:33.780 --> 00:07:38.230 This high voltage rating allows them to spend most of their existence being underrun; they 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 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:48.729 circuit are currently in the off state, which virtually never happens with 10 total flashers. 00:07:48.729 --> 00:07:51.880 On average they only see 2.66 volts. 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. 00:07:55.180 --> 00:07:59.350 This, I’m sure, is more preference than anything, but there’s only one retailer 00:07:59.350 --> 00:08:03.681 near me, that’s ACE hardware, that sells what I consider to be the “correct” color 00:08:03.681 --> 00:08:09.960 combination of simply Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue for multi-colored light strands. 00:08:09.960 --> 00:08:14.340 Nearly everyone else uses orange instead of yellow, and adds purple or pink. 00:08:14.340 --> 00:08:16.730 Sometimes there’s even a cyanish blue in there. 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:20.230 I’m most bothered by the replacement of yellow with orange because yellow is a very 00:08:20.230 --> 00:08:23.380 bright color and provides contrast from the others. 00:08:23.380 --> 00:08:25.570 Orange is too dark and similar to red. 00:08:25.570 --> 00:08:27.340 But that’s just my humble opinion. 00:08:27.340 --> 00:08:32.870 Also, I really don’t care for most multicolored LED fairy lights offered today, largely because 00:08:32.870 --> 00:08:34.930 of the way they are implemented. 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. 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. 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 00:08:49.640 --> 00:08:50.779 are monochromatic. 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 00:08:55.710 --> 00:08:59.040 but with tinted diffusers just like in the good old days. 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:00.960 I think these would be easier on the eyes. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.070 In fact, that gives me an idea… 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:06.339 I’m gonna do some experimentation and report back in another video. 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 00:09:10.670 --> 00:09:15.160 is becoming better every year, plus I think applications like icicle lights or snowflake 00:09:15.160 --> 00:09:18.750 type things are a good application for cool white LEDs. 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 00:09:23.570 --> 00:09:26.370 together without worrying about capacity. 00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:30.649 But I don’t like the fact that they’re constructed just like incandescents sets. 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 00:09:34.590 --> 00:09:38.460 want to suppose this is convention, I find it rather funny that these are just regular 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 00:09:42.850 --> 00:09:47.060 rest of the light strand design being essentially identical to an incandescent one, aside from 00:09:47.060 --> 00:09:50.960 this little doodad which I’m assuming is a diode and capacitor to limit current. 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 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 00:10:01.290 --> 00:10:05.790 with no smoothing at all, which makes them flicker like mad. 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 00:10:10.270 --> 00:10:13.480 them only being lit at the very peak of the positive cycle. 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:17.030 Anyway, I’m all for energy efficient lighting as anyone who follows this channel knows, 00:10:17.030 --> 00:10:21.899 but I haven’t seen an LED set that can duplicate this twinkling effect so well. 00:10:21.899 --> 00:10:26.360 Most of them are animated strings like this, but they don’t address each bulb individually 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:29.170 so it’s an unsubtle and predictable effect. 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, 00:10:34.490 --> 00:10:38.300 but if memory serves the individual LEDs flashed at a steady rate. 00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:41.580 They weren’t all the same flashing rate, so they drifted apart from one another, but 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:44.420 there was no randomness in each one. 00:10:44.420 --> 00:10:46.450 Also the rest of the lights were unaffected. 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 00:10:49.900 --> 00:10:51.330 backup sets of these each year. 00:10:51.330 --> 00:10:53.290 I’ve got 5 extra now. 00:10:53.290 --> 00:10:55.150 And no, I don’t have a problem. 00:10:55.150 --> 00:10:58.020 Thanks for watching, and I hope you found this video interesting. 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. 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. 00:11:06.010 --> 00:11:09.010 If you’re new to this channel and like what you saw, please consider subscribing! 00:11:09.010 --> 00:11:13.570 Of course, thank you to all of my Patreon supporters for keeping this channel possible. 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:15.230 You really make all the difference. 00:11:15.230 --> 00:11:18.691 You can support this channel through the link that will appear shortly on your screen, or 00:11:18.691 --> 00:11:20.110 by visiting the link down below. 00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:23.940 Thank you for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time. 00:11:45.580 --> 00:11:46.940 (Strained) Oh, god. 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:50.600 Those were very hot.