Disappointing Xmas Lights

Like Alec from Technology Connections, I’ve been trying to find the perfect set of LED lights to hang outside for Christmas. We have independently been attempting to find colored LED strands that don’t look like RGB gamer puke. Almost all colored LED strands use monochromatic diodes and only have colored sleeves for decoration. This creates a garish, headache-inducing blob of light with a harsh blue cast. The solution to this problem is simple, obvious, and cheap, but none of the large companies seem to care.

Traditional colored Christmas lights use warm or soft white incandescent bulbs filtered through colored glass. This creates more “natural” looking colors but significantly reduces the efficiency of an already inefficient light source. Since white LEDs can emulate incandescent bulbs, it should be simple to add a colored sleeve over the white LED and get beautiful colors with significantly less waste. There is still some waste, but I think it is worth it.

When shopping at Lowe’s for supplies to clean and restore my Grandfather’s model train, I found what I thought was the holy grail of colored LED strands. GE’s StayBright LED Miniature Lights had colored sleeves around the diodes and some vague wording that made it seem like the strand was full-wave rectified. Upon plugging in the lights to my Kasa outdoor smart outlet, I noticed the strand flickered slightly from the half-wave rectification. Knowing I probably wouldn’t find an outdoor LED strand with proper rectification and smoothing, I decided to forge ahead because I thought the colors would be right. How wrong I was!

When night came, I saw a concerning blue glow from my windows. Knowing the blue cast was common on monochromatic LED Christmas light strands, I decided to investigate. Through the magic of using the spare LEDs that came with the strands, I pulled apart the spares and made a shocking discovery.

Using a three-volt button cell battery, I powered the LEDs outside of their sleeve and discovered they were monochromatic after all! Additionally, I put a warm white LED inside a blue colored sleeve and the light became cool white rather than blue. The colors of the sleeves were just there to show the strand is multicolored.

What a disappointing day to say the least.