Retrofitting LEDs to Xmas Candy Cane light strings

celblazer · 01-06-16, 07:06 PM

Most of my xmas lights are LED but I have 36 3ft candy canes I use for my xmas display which draw over 250watts with 15 bulbs per cane and the bulbs have been rapidly dying as they are over 10yrs old. I would just chuck them but my kid loves them, so I decided that I would change them over to LED. It will cut the power down to under 40 watts and hopefully no bulb replacement for a long time as it's a PITA to do on them. And total cost around $40 total.

I also have 3 strings of 10 lights on my deck for the wife which are beached themed. I used them as my test. I'm disabled so I tacked them a little bit at a time. They were drawing total about 30 watts, after the conversion under 4 watts. Total cost under $10.

I used this site as a guide. I used 1k resistors to limit current to 10ma per led for life and at 20ma they were way brighter then needed plus I can run more leds from one power supply.

And the test result.

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My next project will be updating the Candy Canes the same way. I will document the process better, I forgot to do it with my test ones.

01-06-16, 07:06 PM	#1
celblazer Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: South Jersey Posts: 57 Thanks: 42 Thanked 17 Times in 11 Posts	Retrofitting LEDs to Xmas Candy Cane light strings Most of my xmas lights are LED but I have 36 3ft candy canes I use for my xmas display which draw over 250watts with 15 bulbs per cane and the bulbs have been rapidly dying as they are over 10yrs old. I would just chuck them but my kid loves them, so I decided that I would change them over to LED. It will cut the power down to under 40 watts and hopefully no bulb replacement for a long time as it's a PITA to do on them. And total cost around $40 total. I also have 3 strings of 10 lights on my deck for the wife which are beached themed. I used them as my test. I'm disabled so I tacked them a little bit at a time. They were drawing total about 30 watts, after the conversion under 4 watts. Total cost under $10. I used this site as a guide. I used 1k resistors to limit current to 10ma per led for life and at 20ma they were way brighter then needed plus I can run more leds from one power supply. And the test result. My next project will be updating the Candy Canes the same way. I will document the process better, I forgot to do it with my test ones.