A Capacitor in the Christmas Lights

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On the fourth day of Christmas, our true love traditionally gives us many gifts. These could be four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. Nowadays we may go simpler with stockings bulging with gifts, and lights for the Christmas tree brightening the night. We’ll bet you didn’t know a capacitor in the Christmas lights could make them go on and off together.

Two Ways the Light Bulbs Could String Together

capacitor in the Christmas lights
Christmas Tree Lights: Heather Kaweck: CC 2.0

The simplest sets of strings of Christmas tree lights connect in series. The positive wire loops between them, with the final bulb making the negative connection.

This is all find and dandy until one tiny filament in one tiny bulb malfunctions. Then we have to work through the entire series, find the guilty one and replace it.

Wiring light bulbs in parallel is a great improvement as each of them functions independently. If one bulb stops working, we can ignore it and get on with our Christmas turkey. The rest keep on flashing thanks to a special bulb, or a capacitor in the Christmas tree lights. To know which type of wiring you have, unscrew one light bulb and see what happens.

How a Capacitor in Christmas Lights Would Work

Most Christmas tree lights come with special flashing bulbs that switch between on and off mode. In this instance, you would not have a capacitor in the Christmas tree. An installation on your rooftop using LED’s would need something more sophisticated. In this case, we might use a suitable capacitor in the Christmas lights in series between two matched resistors.

capacitor in the Christmas lights
Christmas Tree House: Harke: CC 1.0

The first resistor would feed power to the capacitor until this had sufficient energy to overcome the second one. This would in turn feed a flash of electricity to the lights.

As they dimmed, the capacitor would be reloaded and ready to fire them up again. The process should continue until we disconnect the power. This is almost like having a capacitor in a pear tree.

Related

What is a Capacitor

How to Make Your Own Capacitor at Home

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About Author

I tripped over a shrinking bank balance and fell into the writing gig unintentionally. This was after I escaped the corporate world and searched in vain for ways to become rich on the internet by doing nothing. Despite the fact that writing is no recipe for wealth, I rather enjoy it. I will not deny I am obsessed with it when I have the time. I live in Margate on the Kwazulu-Natal south coast of South Africa. I work from home where I ponder on the future of the planet, and what lies beyond in the great hereafter. Sometimes I step out of my computer into the silent riverine forests, and empty golden beaches for which the area is renowned. Richard

1 Comment

  1. It was a very nice idea, thanks for sharing. I’d probably make my own rectifier out of some diodes from an old UPS, or maybe buy an actual bridge rectifier so I know what the rating actually is by looking at the data sheet, while if I build my own it’s kinda guess work.

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