alexliivet
Woolworths Christmas Lights
The quintissential budget Christmas light set of the 1980s and early 1990s which must surely have been produced in the millions.
These multi-coloured lights with traditional incandescent bulbs feature flower-shaped 'petal' or 'tulip' shades.
This is a Woolworths-branded set, but identical sets were sold by many other retailers, under the 'Swan' brand and own labels.
Mains-operated, the set is contructed using 20× 12 volt lamps wired in series between the live and neutral of the mains supply. It consumes around 22 watts of power – which is more than is needed to light an average living room using newer LED technology.
Unlike LEDs, the lamps have only a limited life. To avoid the whole set failing when one lamp burns out, 19 of the lamps are designed so that power will still pass through them when they fail. A side effect of this is that each failure results in the mains voltage being split across fewer working lamps which then have to handle a higher voltage. For example, if 2 lamps were blown then each remaining lamp would now be operating at over 13 volts instead of their usual 12 volts. To avoid overheating, one lamp is designated as a 'fuse bulb' (visible at the top right in this set). Marked with a white tip, this lamp is designed to fail and stop power flowing through the set if too many normal bulbs have failed and the voltage has risen too high.
Despite operating at full mains voltage, this light set is typical of the era and features wiring with only a thin, single layer of insulation. Tougher, safer wiring has been required on all mains-operated equipment since the early 1990s.
Woolworths Christmas Lights
The quintissential budget Christmas light set of the 1980s and early 1990s which must surely have been produced in the millions.
These multi-coloured lights with traditional incandescent bulbs feature flower-shaped 'petal' or 'tulip' shades.
This is a Woolworths-branded set, but identical sets were sold by many other retailers, under the 'Swan' brand and own labels.
Mains-operated, the set is contructed using 20× 12 volt lamps wired in series between the live and neutral of the mains supply. It consumes around 22 watts of power – which is more than is needed to light an average living room using newer LED technology.
Unlike LEDs, the lamps have only a limited life. To avoid the whole set failing when one lamp burns out, 19 of the lamps are designed so that power will still pass through them when they fail. A side effect of this is that each failure results in the mains voltage being split across fewer working lamps which then have to handle a higher voltage. For example, if 2 lamps were blown then each remaining lamp would now be operating at over 13 volts instead of their usual 12 volts. To avoid overheating, one lamp is designated as a 'fuse bulb' (visible at the top right in this set). Marked with a white tip, this lamp is designed to fail and stop power flowing through the set if too many normal bulbs have failed and the voltage has risen too high.
Despite operating at full mains voltage, this light set is typical of the era and features wiring with only a thin, single layer of insulation. Tougher, safer wiring has been required on all mains-operated equipment since the early 1990s.