GFCI Christmas Lights?

- H
- HB2
  
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posted
19 years ago

Mon, Dec 6, 2004 12:18 AM

I have indoor/outdoor net style Christmas Lights for my front bushes. The Christmas lights will not accept a 3 prong plug that my outdoor extension cords require, so I am currently using indoor extension cords for my outdoor lights. How do I make this situation safe? I do not know much at all about electricity, so please excuse my ignorance. Can I use a GFCI extension cord to make this safer? I would think the grounding prong would be required to use GFCI but like I said, I know very little about electricity.

Thanks

- J
- John Gilmer
  
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posted
19 years ago

Mon, Dec 6, 2004 2:59 AM

Well, you are right about that!

There is NOTHING to prevent your pluging in a light set with a two prong plug into a three prong extension cord.

If you are using the extension cord to increase the separation between two sets of outdoor lights, then it's OK to use an "indoor" extension cord. Just about any extension cord has better insultation than all but the best set of outdoor lights.

"Safety" can be provided by ensuring that the outlet that powers your outdoor lights is GFCI protected. If it rains the GFCI might trip and you may not be able to reset it until the next day when it dries. I have not even had trouble with the lights tripping a GFCI except in a heavy rain and the next day I was able to reset the GFCI and using the lights.

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- mikepier
  
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posted
19 years ago

Tue, Dec 7, 2004 4:16 PM

extension

extension cord

required to

For one thing, use an outdoor cord for outside, not an indoor cord.

If you want to put the lights on a GFCI circuit, you can either change the outlet that the lights plug into, or, if your lights are on dedicated circuit, put in a GFCI circuit breaker. That's what I have.