this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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I'm calling fake now.
Christmas lights, if made correctly, should have a fuse. These cords aren't made to handle the full 20A the breaker can. They usually cap somewhere around 3A. Nothing is stopping you from plugging a two prong 12A vacuum cleaner into them. So if you actually tried that, you'd blow the fuse in your lights before you tripped the breaker.
This is how 16 gauge extension cords should be made, too. Unfortunately, they aren't, and people light those up all the time.
Either that, or here goes Amazon, once again not vetting the shit they sell, and selling average intelligence people fire hazards.
The strands' fuses probably wouldn't see that current though. These are connected in parallel.
The first plug has all the current passing through it, but I'm not sure that would reach a fuse if it's down-circuit protecting the lights.
Also, trying to tie a breaker in the closed (on) position like that won't stop it from tripping. It'll just make it more difficult to reset.
When tripped, the internal electrical part detaches from the lever mechanism and switches to the off position. The lever will then normally be ether free floating or spring to the middle (between on and off) until it is moved to the off position. Moving it to the off position will reattach the lever mechanism to the electrical part, which then allows it to be turned back on.
Also, I think the lights would be perfectly happy being plugged in like that because they are LEDs. I don't know how many it would take stacked like that before you would have trouble, but I feel like it would be a lot more.
I was comparing lights two weeks ago. The sets I was looking at had 150 bulbs. The manufacturer recommended a max of 4 incandescent strings in series. For led it was 30 in series. Led only draws around 7 watts each.
Yeah and 7watts at 120 volts is only around 60mA. To get to a standard home circuit’s 15 amps (15,000mA) would take 250 LED strings. There may be some inrush current, but not of there are resistors in the led sets (every set I own has em).
The fuse doesn't matter. Those LEDs draw like 69W per 1k LEDs. You'd need about 12,000ft of lights to pass 20A
15a plug socket, 20a breaker. Fake.
Actually, many houses are built this way. My house has 15A receptacles on 20A circuits. I don't agree with it. The breaker should always be the weakest point. But the NEC (section 210.21) allows you to put 15A receptacles on 20A circuits as long as you use a duplex receptacle OR there are multiple simplex receptacles on the circuit.
This kind of thing is why code requires washing machines to have their own dedicated circuits, but you always find a duplex receptacle where the washing machine goes. It's not for your convenience. It's the most cost-effective way to pass code.
As long as the wiring is good for 20A it's fine. Also if you break open a 15A recepticle a lot of them have the 20A contacts in there as well since it's the same unit just with a different face.
Yeah, I wonder if anyone makes a UL listed 15A receptacle that don’t have a safety factor well over 20A.
What it really comes down to though, is as long as code allows it, your ok.