Can I Cut Led Christmas Lights

No you can t lengthen or shorten standard series wired incandescent and led christmas tree light strings that are made with 2 or 3 wire harnesses.

Can i cut led christmas lights.

If however you are installing c7 c9 18 awg christmas light cords with sockets and screw in bulbs that are wired in parallel yes you can shorten them. You can find led calculators to determine the propper resister but too many different voltages for different leds. This problem can occur when christmas lights are added to the yard and yard decorations. Line up the cut carefully to avoid damaging the leds.

A pair of scissors will do the job. You should be cutting between the copper dots. If you are handy with a multimeter it is really simple. Wire cutters again a pair can be purchased in any hardware or electrical supply store.

Yes you can cut led strings down to whatever length you need. When your three strand christmas lights are too long for the place you had intended and you do not have any shorter strands you can shorten your light strand in a couple of easy but time consuming ways. We explained in our article answering the question are christmas lights in series or parallel we discussed that while mini lights with small wiring harnesses wired in series cannot be easily cut to custom lengths parallel wired cords can be cut and terminated. Hold the lights still and cut along the dotted line.

This video will show you how to cut an led string so you will have a usable length without have to much left over. Electrical tape this is optional but if you want to make sure that your wire nuts are secured then it s best to purchase a roll as well. Even if they work at first they won t last long. After twisting the wires together secure with a wires connector.

R v supply n v led over i led p i led 2 r. Twist the two bare wire ends together. As stated you must change the current limiting resister to match. Use wire cutters to strip the ends of the two wires cut in the previous step.

They re also available online. Cut the led strip apart with scissors. If you know or can measure the led current for each led end therefore for a series and the voltage drop of each and the applied voltage you could calculate the resistance and wattage of a resistor to limit the current to a safe value. They will be used to cut and shorten your led christmas lights.