Decorating with Christmas Lights: Safety Tips
Easy, Do-It-Yourself Ways to Avoid Fire, Shock, and Other Disasters
If you can't be home, don't turn on your holiday-lights display. Leaving a lighting display unattended is an invitation to fire.
Speaking of which, be fire safe. Have a fire extinguisher and smoke detectors in your home. Make sure that everyone there knows the quickest escape routes.
Replace burnt-out light bulbs as soon as possible. A dead bulb in a strand interferes with the proper flow of electricity. It's important to replace a light bulb rather than just remove it; children can stick their fingers in an empty light socket. Replace the bulb with one of the exact same size and wattage.
Christmas Tree Advice
If you're decorating your front yard with lit-up Christmas trees, apply the same rules that you'd apply to indoor trees:
- Don't put electric lights on metal trees.
- Keep the bulbs from drying the trees out (and turning them into a fire hazard) by setting them in water, but don't let anything electrical get near the water.
- Anchor the trees (and anything else that you place on your property and light up) so that no sprinting child or gusting storm can knock them down.
Extension Cords
It's better to use one long extension cord rather than several small ones. Keep cords away from metal, moisture and hot places such as heaters, fireplaces or furnaces. Also, keep them away from places where people will walk. Put them against a wall instead. And never force a three-pronged plug into a two-hole outlet.
Don't run extension cords from inside your house to your outdoor display. Connecting Christmas lights to indoor outlets takes a lot of extension cord, which can have a lot of places to wear out. The danger of wear and tear is especially high if you run a cord under carpets, close to furniture or through doorways—places where people are likely to step on it. Instead, have an electrician install outlets outdoors.
Touching a Christmas Lights Display
Never touch a lit holiday-lights display. Before you do anything to Christmas lights, turn them off and unplug them.
Don't let pets and children touch a lights display. If you can't be sure that you can make kids and animals avoid the places where you put the lights, then don't put a lighting dispaly on those places.
Don't let light bulbs touch anything that burns easily, like dry leaves. This instruction may make tree lighting tricky, but it can help to prevent fires. Turn any bulbs on branches upside down so that they point away from the branches and toward the ground. This arrangement will keep the bulbs' burning filaments from heating the branches and prevent moisture from settling in the bulbs' sockets.
Rain, Snow, and Other Forms of Moisture
Keep your display away from moisture. Place outlets, plugs, cords and other equipment in sheltered areas that stay dry during storms.
If rain is coming, turn off the display and unplug it. Cover the display with something waterproof, like tarpaulins or plastic sheeting. Secure this shielding tightly so that it protects the display against coming loose in a high wind. If you've attached lights to free-standing items like Santas or reindeer, take the items inside.
A Final Word
If all of this seems daunting, remember that paying attention to it now will give you a more carefree experience when the lights are ablaze. So warily watch for dangers, carefully secure displays in only the safest places, and thoroughly double-check everything…
…But have fun!
Fire extinguisher
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Home & Style
Latest Articles