75ZT Community

Here's a tip for you!

Any old sets that are no longer of any use on the tree make brilliant "test lamps"!

I've got a set that were about to go in the bin, but instead yielded a nice size wire for testing my FBH (Fuel burning heater.) firing as it was just right to fit in the hole for Pin 3. The other end gave me a good three feet of cable with a bulb on the end for further tests, and what's more, I have around 20 spare bulbs for future use!

(and should be more than safe for 12v as this was an older set that was mains voltage)

Yes, but the bulbs are in series. So if 20 bulb set, they are 12v bulbs, but if a 40 light set they are only 6v bulbs.

Mind you, if you have around 20 bulbs spare, I guess it was a 21 ish bulb set.

One other thing to be careful of. Some Christmas tree bulbs are designed so that when the filament goes, they go short circuit so it's easy to see which bulb has gone. I have no idea how this mechanism works, but have seen light sets that don't go out when one bulb fails. This might cause a problem on some circuits, but I have no evidence it will or won't.

However if you take care of these things, a very handy tip.

...starting to get a bit pricey now what with the inline fuseholder and all....