American Christmas Lights

[Phil379]

Hi, I am hoping you can help me please.

My wife purchased some American Christmas lights from a friend, it has a two pin American plug on them and an inbuilt 7amp fuse.

I have attached a photo of the lights, did buy an adapter plugged the lights into it and then into wall socket and it blew the adapter!

I am after a safe adapter/transformer here’s hoping you will be able to help me

Many thanks

Phil Maskell

 

[pirate]

I hope you kept the receipt!

 

[Spoon]

Take a pic of the adapter and post it up here.
Might be able to get an adapter with the same output for a uk plug.
This would most probably mean cutting off the old adapter and wiring in the new one.

 

[Julie.]

Take a pic of the adapter and post it up here.
Might be able to get an adapter with the same output for a uk plug.
This would most probably mean cutting off the old adapter and wiring in the new one.

Doubt it, it looks like the old fashioned type, a load of lamps in series to get to 120V.

Single insulated cables at 240v so prohibited in UK and EU

 

[davesparks]

I have attached a photo of the lights, did buy an adapter plugged the lights into it and then into wall socket and it blew the adapter!

The problem is those lights are designed and rated for the American 120V mains supply.
In the UK we have a 240V mains supply so the cable they are made from is not safe for use with our electricity supply.

I guess in theory you could get a yellow 110V site transformer and feed them from that!

 

[littlespark]

I can’t see how it blew the adaptor….

If it’s 120v lamps getting twice as much voltage as they’re designed for… then the lamps would blow.

 

[Spoon]

I can’t see how it blew the adaptor….

If it’s 120v lamps getting twice as much voltage as they’re designed for… then the lamps would blow.

That's why I thought that the adapter reduced the voltage for the lights, but the lights do look like old lights as @Julie. pointed out to me.

Looks like we will have to wait for the OP to give us more info.

 

[littlespark]

What about using the 110v side of a shaver socket?

Possibly not good, as they will only be suitable for short term use… not 8 hours non stop.

 

[SJD]

You can get small/compact 110V transformers from the likes of eBay quite cheaply (UK stock, rated e.g. at 200W). However, I'd be cautious about leaving one of these on while out, or overnight, in case they catch fire.

Unless there was some special reason for wanting to get these lights working, I'd just bin them & buy something designed for the UK market. If they've been briefly connected directly to 230V, I'd be suprised if they are still all working anyway.

 

[RetiredNY]

Hi, I am hoping you can help me please.

My wife purchased some American Christmas lights from a friend, it has a two pin American plug on them and an inbuilt 7amp fuse.

I have attached a photo of the lights, did buy an adapter plugged the lights into it and then into wall socket and it blew the adapter!

I am after a safe adapter/transformer here’s hoping you will be able to help me

Many thanks

Phil Maskell

Doubt it, it looks like the old fashioned type, a load of lamps in series to get to 120V.

Single insulated cables at 240v so prohibited in UK and EU

What about using the 110v side of a shaver socket?

Possibly not good, as they will only be suitable for short term use… not 8 hours non stop.

Those are American lights designed to run on 120 volts, and each lamp is wired in parallel not series. They're typically sold in strings of 25 x 7 watt lamps, so 175 watts per string. The gauge of wire is typically small hence the 7 amp limit fuse to prevent the end-to-end connection of more than 3 strings. Older strings had heavier gauge wire but more modern versions have only a 5 amp fuse. Some of these strings labeled "energy saver" utilized 5-watt lamps, branded "cool bright." It is usually a fool's folly to attempt to utilize electrical products designed for a foreign country with different product and safety standards as well as different utilization voltages. I'm aware of European shaver sockets which employ a 110 volt output transformer, but I doubt a socket designed specifically for shavers would be rated to supply 175 watts at 120 volts.