Why can’t you buy them anymore? All you see are the tiny lights. When I was growing up all we had were the large ones. I think they look better on trees. Is there a reason they don’t sell them anymore?
They do. Get thee to Wal-Mart.
Yep, Wal-mart has them. They are not as easy to find anymore (IMHO) because the little ones are cheaper, and thus sell quicker. But, we just bought some replacement bulbs from Wally World two weeks ago. Home Depot and Lowes also had them.
I agree…the small bulbs are unimpressive on large trees because most people spread the strings too far. Although more effort and more money, I’ve seen trees almost “clad” in the strings of the little lights to get the right look.
But again, larger bulbs give a much better appearance on most things. The little bulbs were once cute on smaller trees, but I never thought the day would come when they’d usurpt the bigger bulbs! - Jinx
According to a blurb that was running on our local news, the older, large lights are so energy inefficient that using them instead of the small lights could double your electric bill. (A statistic they obviously pulled out of the air since they didn’t specify how many lights were used, for how long, what the electric bill was BEFORE, etc.)
All I remember about the larger bulbs was they got absurdly hot and someone in the house would always burn themselves on one at least once.
Those bulbs are called C-7 and C-9, the latter being the very large ones which are only supposed to be used outdoors.
As far as efficiency, C-7 bulbs are 5 or 7 watts. So a string of 20 or so bulbs is the equivalent of a 100 watt lightbulb. We usually use 3 or 4 strings on a tree. So quite a bit of power consumption, but no way does it double your electric bill.