A quick question about GE LED light strings

[geekboy]

I have been using Noma LED lights for two years now, and this year have managed to replace all of my lights with LED strings and nets. Fine - I have never had any issues with this brand of LED lights - no terminators, no glitches, no channels stuck on, nothing.

BUT - I wanted to build a new feature this year, and when I was doing my planning I found the General Electric brand LED lights at Lowes for a VERY good price. However, I notice the box says that you shouldn't put more than three strings end to end. Is there something different about these lights? The Noma lights had no such warning or caveat. Will the GE lights work with a standard LOR controller?

I have three 1602 units, if that matters.

[Dennis Cherry]

MarkHornblower wrote:

I have been using Noma LED lights for two years now, and this year have managed to replace all of my lights with LED strings and nets. Fine - I have never had any issues with this brand of LED lights - no terminators, no glitches, no channels stuck on, nothing.

BUT - I wanted to build a new feature this year, and when I was doing my planning I found the General Electric brand LED lights at Lowes for a VERY good price. However, I notice the box says that you shouldn't put more than three strings end to end. Is there something different about these lights? The Noma lights had no such warning or caveat. Will the GE lights work with a standard LOR controller?

I have three 1602 units, if that matters.

UL just changed the requirement this year for all Christmas Lights. This happened in the spring time. Not all manufacturers had time to print the correct statements this year on the boxes. This includes incandescence and LED's. Old 2007 stock will also still have the three string rule.

I believe the new boxes say maximum 210 watts and state the wattage for one string with the maximum you can connect in series, however if the box does not say the new requirement then the old rule stands. Its up to the manufacturers to give you the correct information for your safety.

Now that said it took UL to long to make the rule change, as for LED's it should not be a problem if you connect 20 strings in series safely.

[Steven]

I use several GE blue LED 50-bulb strings from Lowe's in my display. They fade fine and no terminators are needed.

These strings are full-wave and use a patented series-parallel configuration that will keep the string lit even if a (single) bulb is removed.

[geekboy]

Having purchased a bunch on sale this weekend, I can confirm that the GE LED strings are faboo, The only thing that is in any way different from any other lighting element is that they seem to hit full brightness at about 60 percent power (the Noma LEDs I have go to visibly full brightness at about 75 percent power).

I am now proud to say that ALL of my elements are LED as of this weekend. yay me.