Last year I got it in my head to make these cool outdoor Christmas lights I’d seen online. They are 2’-3’ balls of chicken wire covered with strands of light. Whether hanging from a tree or sitting on the ground they look AWESOME. (someone else’s example)
Except, for the first time in the 5 or so years I’ve been doing lights (but the first time for the balls), the GFI kept tripping. I then split the display in to two different plugs (both GFI) and the problem persisted. I am pretty sure it’s not a load issue, as I did some calculations and the loads are minimal. All the cords and the strands are rated for outdoor. The tripping doesn’t seem to happen directly related to weather or time, but I didn’t keep detailed records.
I tried putting electrical tape around all of the connections but then I read somewhere where that’s not optimal because that has the potential to trap water inside the connection, so I removed most of the tape. Didn’t help either way.
I also read that the problem is the GFI, and it’s doing its job, because I’ve got electrical, metal and water. But also that the load wouldn’t be too dangerous in a non-GFI outlet, the GFI is “over-reacting.” But I don’t know if I could get a non-GFI outlet installed in my garage anyway, due to code. And do I want to not protect myself and my house. I live here.
Any tips for what I could do to help myself keep my display lit? My friend has a similar display and shoddier setup and his stays lit just fine :-/
Is this outlet one you use regularly throughout the year? If not, it might have been flaky for the last 10 months and you didn’t know.
Step 1 is to check the wiring to the GFI outlet and any downstream looking for loose or corroded connections.
Step 2 would be to try plugging some other known-safe loads into that GFI outlet. Something like a table lamp or a toaster, not something with a motor like a vaccum cleaner. If that trips the GFI over a similar timespan as your xmas lights do, that pretty well proves the GFI device is defective. It happens. If so, replace it.
After that I’d begin to be concerned that the light string you’ve used is defective. They’re certainly made as cheaply as China can get away with.
I have my battery charger plugged in to the garage GFI and used it twice this summer for over 12 hours to charge the battery. I also used the garage GFI to simultaneously power two bounce house blowers for about 5 hours this summer, and also used it for about 8 hours of power washing. So, in your experience, would you consider that plug to be working or should I put a lamp out there for a bit? Is the battery charger a good test?
What’s the best way to test the strands? I suppose if nothing else I could test each ball for a full day in the garage.
I have 8 balls, three 10’ strands and one 100’ strand. At first I had all of them together on one circuit going in to the garage GFI. After that tripped the garage, I split them in to one circuit of 5 balls going in to the garage GFI, and one circuit of 3 balls + the extra strands going in to the kitchen GFI. After I split them, both continued to trip.
Does anyone have an opinion on taping the connections?
OK - GFI’s trip due to leakage current to ground. They also trip due to over-current, but that’s not going to be the issue in this case.
What might cause that?
Crappy insulation.
Water-logged wires. CHEAP POWER SUPPLIES. If these are low-voltage lights, I suspect that the crummy Chinese power supplies are the problem. They may be made poorly, or may be designed with “common-mode” RFI suppression capacitor that is causing the leakage. The solution would be to find a power supply that is better constructed.
Definitely try this. I skipped this step when our barn waterline heat-tape repeatedly tripped the GFI circuit. I spent a day digging up the water line and replacing the (assumed) bad heat-tape. Turns out the outlet was bad.
I replaced the outlet and everything was fine. I could have saved a ton of work checking the outlet first.
Don’t worry I am not going to put them up until after Thanksgiving! I’m just getting my stuff sorted out now so I am not scrambling
**kayaker **I keep looking at those plug covers but I have so many strands it would cost a bundle. Maybe I just need to start collecting them this year.
**beowulff **do you have a brand that you prefer? I will fully admit to using cheap lights. Willing to start trying to replace them with something more reliable.
I wouldn’t tape them. Do you have any cement blocks or bricks you can run the cords over or through so the connections are off the ground? That’s what we used to do in the Army to make sure connections weren’t damp. If it actually rained, we could put visqueen over the connectors.
Ahhh, I see. You’re talking about the connection between each strand. Yeah, I only use the covers between my lights and extension cord. For my setup that is the only connection on the ground.
I don’t even know, to be honest. The cheapest I could find at Lowes last year. Probably their “Holiday Living” brand, not General Electric.
I’ve almost convinced myself that upgrading to these LEDs will be worth it - not only for reliability but also brightness and the savings of LED. It’ll be over $200 to do it but it could fix my GFI problem. What do you think?
Finding a replacement power supply for a cheap Chinese light string is going to be pretty hard. Especially when many of them are actually built-in to the cord or plug.
An easier option might be to just plug it into a non-GFI outlet.
Look, the purpose of GFI outlets is to protect humans from electrical shock from faulty items. These balls of Xmas lights are being installed out in his yard – there shouldn’t be any people touching them. And since they’re out in the middle of a snow-covered yard, away from buildings, the risk of fire is pretty small.
I watched a video on YouTube this afternoon of an electrician giving his advice about what to do when your Christmas lights keep tripping. His advice was the same as t-bonham’s - replace the GFCI with non-GFCI and plug away. My house USED to be full of non-GFCI outlets (built in 1969) but I personally had the garage, kitchen and bathroom ones updated to code. So it’d be a crazy inconvenience to plug in to an existing non-GFCI but not too bad to just make a replacement…
I might consider replacing the garage outlet but I’m a super weenie when it comes to electricity, so I think I might first try the route of buying nicer strands.
If these strands still go out then I will consider ditching the GFCI at least during Christmas season, and put them back after.
As long as your total load was under 300W or so, this transformer would (most likely) fix the problem, and you could keep your existing lights and outlet.
