How to connect a Christmas garland on the street

The bright lights of garlands on the streets, shop windows, building facades, on trees create a unique holiday atmosphere that captivates and gives the New Year holidays fabulous magic. Besides beauty, new year garland they also carry a hidden danger, as they are consumers of electric energy and, like any other electrical appliance, must be operated in compliance with certain rules.

The correct connection of the garland to the electric network is the key to its long and, most importantly, safe operation. Very often gross errors are made when connecting the garland on the street, which can lead to negative consequences: which are limited at best to damage to the garland itself or various electrical components, but also the possibility of fire or electric shock to people.

How to connect a Christmas garland on the street? We will try to answer this question.

A few words about the correct choice of garland for outdoor use

The main mistake when choosing New Year's garlands for outdoor decoration is the choice of products with an insufficient degree of protection. A garland that is mounted on the street will be exposed to negative environmental factors, in particular, moisture (rain, snow).

Therefore, it is necessary to choose a garland with a housing protection of at least IP65 (protection against water jet). In this case, the degree of protection IP44 for the garland, which will be outdoors, is not enough, since it has protection only against splashes of water of an arbitrary direction.

Often comes across low-quality products that do not meet the declared characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to visually verify that the garland for outdoor installation is indeed intended for this purpose: the lamps (LEDs) are securely fixed and tight at the points of connection of the conductors, and the garland itself has sufficient mechanical strength.

How to connect a low-voltage Christmas garland on the street

The most important point is the safety of connecting the New Year's garland. There are many different types of garlands that can be classified according to such a feature as rated operating voltage.

The most safe are low-voltage garlands with LED or incandescent lamps. In this case, all the lamps are connected in parallel in groups of several bulbs, the supply voltage is 12 V or 24 V. For the supply of such garlands are used special power supplies (transformers), which provide the conversion of household voltage 220 V to the required value - 12 or 24 V.

First of all, you need to choose the right power supply (transformer). These elements are selected according to the operating voltage, as well as the rated power of the connected load. It is recommended to choose a power supply with a certain margin of power in order to avoid damage due to constant load.

If the garlands are long and their power consumption is large, then several power supplies can be used to power them, which can be switched on in parallel and powered by all the lights or shared load and connected separately to each of the power supplies. Insufficient power of the power supply leads to its failure.

If the acquired garland is not enough, then you can attach another one of it, of the required size. Low-voltage garlands are interconnected using connectors.

The use of other methods of connecting two sections, for example, traditional soldering, is unacceptable, since in this case it is necessary to provide sufficient protection of the connection from the external environment, which is provided exclusively in the case of using special waterproof connectors.

You should also pay attention to the permissible number of sections connected in series. As a rule, this value is indicated in the instruction manual for the garland. For example, it is indicated that no more than three garlands can be included in series. In this case, we are talking about the fact that you can connect another garland to the garland, and from it feed a third.

You cannot connect more daisies than indicated in the instructions, as this can lead to damage. This is due to the fact that the conductive elements (conductors) are designed for a certain load and if a current greater than the permissible one flows through them, for example, if four daisies are connected instead of three possible, it will fail.

If it is necessary to turn on another garland, a separate wire should be drawn to it from the power source. That is, the specified number of sequentially connected garlands does not limit their use. You can turn on the required number of garlands, but provided that every three garlands (or how much is permissible according to the instructions) should be connected to a power source with a separate wire.

If the design of the New Year garland is such that it does not provide for the possibility of connecting another garland, then each of the sections is also fed by laying a separate wire to the power source.

If the garland provides the ability to adjust the intensity of the glow of the lamps, select the glow mode, then in addition to the power supply, to ensure its operation, a controller is required.

In addition to the protection against negative environmental factors, it is also necessary to protect the auxiliary elements - the power supply and the controller. In this case, there are several options for implementing a secure connection.

If the power supply and controller do not have sufficient protection of the case against moisture and mechanical damage, then the safest option is to install the power supply and controller in the panel (box).

In the room, in a pre-mounted shield (box), a power supply unit, a controller (if necessary) are installed, the power line of the household network, as well as the power cable of the garland, is put into the shield. It is also possible to mount such a shield outdoors, but provided that this shield is intended for outdoor installation.

Most modern power supplies and controllers designed to power the New Year's garlands have reliable housing protection, so they can be installed outdoors without additional protection.

In this case, the power supply unit, the controller and the socket, designed to connect the power supply to the network, are mounted. The socket must have a high degree of protection of the housing from external influences.

A few words about connecting Christmas lights, powered by a household network

Consider the rules for safe connection of New Year's garlands, which are designed to be powered from a household network. Such a garland does not need a power supply unit - it is connected directly to a single-phase 220 V household network. Garlands designed for different operating modes are connected to the network through controllers that are also designed for direct connection to the network.

Christmas garlands of this type cannot be cut and connected from several pieces, since the LEDs (bulbs) in them are connected in series in a single chain. If the chain is broken, then the garland will not work.

The number of bulbs in one New Year's garland is selected in such a way that each of the bulbs receives the required voltage value. That is, the number of elements cannot be changed.If it is necessary to connect several garlands, a separate supply line is maintained to each of them.

Garlands of this type are more dangerous in terms of electric shock. Therefore, the place for their installation should be selected in such a way as to exclude possible mechanical influences as much as in case of damage to and exposure of conductors, people in the vicinity can be exposed to voltage.

Also, in all the cases discussed above, it is necessary to ensure the inclusion and disconnection of garlands from the network. The installation of a conventional lighting switch does not ensure the safe operation of the garland.

Firstly, because it does not provide a gap at the same time the phase and zero of the electrical network. Secondly, the light switches are designed for switching small currents, so if several New Year's lights are connected to the network, then their load current may be more than the allowable for this switch.

In any case, it is necessary to ensure that the garland is completely disconnected from the electric network, therefore the most safe and reliable way is to install a separate box with the garland two-phase circuit breaker.

The rated current of the circuit breaker is selected in accordance with the total load current or, if it is a low-voltage garland, with the current of the primary winding of a step-down transformer (power supply).