Holiday Lights without Casualties in your Condo or HOA

In many families, the December holidays call for decorating houses and yards with bright lights. In some neighborhoods, the homeowners compete in creating showcases of lighting effects that draw a nightly parade of slow-moving cars, filled with people who appropriately "ooh" and "aah" at what they see. 

What may not make the news is the fact that each year about 12,500 people show up in hospital emergency rooms for falls from ladders or cuts and shocks related to the holiday lights and decorations.

Here are some tips for keeping you and your family members off the emergency room registration lists:

• When you purchase indoor or outdoor lights, use only those that have been safety-tested by a recognized testing laboratory. The accompanying tag or label indicates that the lights conform with safety standards.
• Use only lights that have fused plugs.
• When you pull your family lights out of the storage boxes, check each set (even the new ones), for broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires or loose connections. Throw out the damaged sets. A new set of lights will cost less than your emergency room treatment.
• Always replace burned-out bulbs promptly with the same wattage bulbs.
• Use no more than three standard-sized sets of lights per single extension cord. Make sure the extension cord is rated for the intended use (indoor or outdoor).
• Never use electric lights on a metallic tree. The tree can become charged with electricity from faulty lights; any person touching a branch could be electrocuted.
• Before using holiday lights outdoors, check the labels to make sure they have been certified for outdoor use.
• When stringing up the lights on your house or on trees and shrubs, stay away from power or feeder lines that lead from utility poles into older homes.
• Fasten outdoor lights securely to trees, house walls or other firm supports. This will protect the lights from wind damage. Use only insulated staples---not nails or tacks--- to hold strings in place. You can also choose to run strings of lights through hooks (available at your neighborhood hardware store.)
• Turn off all holiday lights when you go to bed or when you leave the house. The lights could short out and start a fire while you're sleeping or while you're away from the house.
• When it's time to remove the lights, never pull or tug on them. They could unravel and inadvertently wrap themselves around power lines.

Outdoor electric lights and decorations should be plugged into circuits that are protected by ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs). Portable outdoor GFCIs can be purchased where electrical supplies are sold. They can be installed permanently to household circuits by a qualified electrician.

Article by Kent Crook, President of Wiremasters Electric, Inc.