[Jack Carving]

So this year I am looking for an alternative to LED tea lights as the cost of half decent ones can get a bit pricy when you factor in batteries and I just don't feel the 'cheap' dollar store tea lights produce enough light, not to mention the hassle of having to turn them on/off individually. So I got to thinking of using a string of holiday lights (as I've seen many folks here have used in the past), a quick search and I discovered what I (think) I am looking for, these Flicker Flame Lights available at Target. They are available in clear and amber, I'm curious which would be best?

I'm hoping to make a trip to Target later this week, but I wanted to get some thoughts on these in case folks have used them in the past.

My questions with regards to these are:

• Will they be brighter than your average dollar store tea light?
• Are they going to be safe underneath a foam pumpkin?
• Will they produce the same imitation 'candle' flicker that your average tea light does?
• Will they last a season or two before the bulbs burn out?

If anyone is familiar with these please share your experiences with them. My closest Target is out of town so -if- these are 'junk' I would really love to know so I don't waste the trip.

[Gigatron]

I had purchased these little flashing LED lights from Michael's for use with my foam pumpkins. The brightness is excellent, but they chewed through 3 batteries, just after 4 hours of operation. Granted, I'm willing to bet that the lights come with the cheapest AG13 batteries, know to mankind. Replacement energizer 357/303 cells, are about $1 each, even on Amazon. Considering 3 batteries/light and four pumpkins - this can get to be an expensive prospect.

So, what I did was, find the replacement bulb and socket units, that they use in the Dickens56 and Heartland Villiage christmas towns. It's basically a single bulb, in a socket, on a lamp cord, with an in-line on-off switch. They run about $2.50 on Amazon. Consider my LED lights cost $2 each, plus who knows how many sets of replacement batteries, I felt this was a worthwhile investment.

Just maybe something to consider.

-Fred

[austinbest]

Those are what i use, the 6ft chord with bulb, christmas house replacements.. They are $1 each at the dollar tree, mine have lasted 2 years so far.. Havn't checked them yet this year, will do that over the weekend.

[Jack Carving]

Appreciate the alternative ideas, unfortunately given that my display will have at least 9 foamies on it I don't think this would be an efficient or safe solution for a single power outlet.

I was talking with my brother today about him rigging me up an LED light box with up to 10 wired individual LEDs, although a project like that may be best reserved for next season.

It's still early in the month so I am weighing my options...

[austinbest]

A typical circuit can handle 1800-2400 watts.. Those little lights are 20-25 watts. You will be far from blowing anything by stringing them together. I do it too, i have about 15 or 20 pumpkins i put on multiple strips fed by a single extension chord. Just my input

[Gigatron]

At christmastime, my parents have a dozen or so of the christmas villiage houses, plus other sets (skiers, skaters, etc), running off of 2 power strips, running in series (one plugged into the other). I know it works because I'm the one that has to go over there and set it up every year. After 8 years, I still haven't popped the breaker - and that includes the train set plugged into second outlet in the box.

-Fred

[Jack Carving]

This is something I will certainly look into then (assuming my local dollar tree has these lights), Ideally though, I would really love to have lights that flicker like candles.

[shaft28]

I have some flicker flame bulbs I use in my porch light (3) that are ok but Ben with 3 they aren't that bright. I like the 3 led lights that either flicker or change color, very bright. Ryan has a huge post on them somewhere in here.

[Jack Carving]

So as it turns out, none of my local dollar stores had any lighting decorations... I guess they don't realize strings of lights can be used for more than just Christmas decorations. In the end I went digging through our old Christmas decorations and found a string of bulb lights with a nice assortment of colors, so I rigged them up to the shelf I have the foamies displayed on in our front room window. This is the result:



I'm still working on the final display, not shown is a third shelf below the second row of foamies. That shelf is reserved for The Bride (of Frankenstein) and Imhotep which have yet to be carved, the third for that shelf is still undecided, but may end up being Elvira mostly because she's already carved, and I'm having a hard time finding more large foamies and well... as I said in another thread, she will help balance out the feel of the 'boys club'.

I suppose that resolves my issue of the tealights.

[El Mateo]

Appreciate the alternative ideas, unfortunately given that my display will have at least 9 foamies on it I don't think this would be an efficient or safe solution for a single power outlet.

Can't you use a power strip? Six spots to use, and use could use a household extension cord in one of the slots... I dunno. Better to hook them up to something that can handle the power with a surge protector than piece something together...