The majority of homeowners take the wing-it attitude towards installing the holiday lights: make it up, figure it out on the fly and vow privately that they will install them earlier next year. The outcome is usually a blown circuit, a roof that cracks midway down the line and an unquenchable feeling that there must be a better way. More info!

Survey Your Property Before you spend a Dollar.

Determine precisely what you wish to be lighted up and then purchase it. Or just roofline, or trees, pathways and fence lines included in the plan as well? Each surface is different, each surface will have its requirements, it will have different hardware, different strand length, and different method of attaching it. This is the very reason why they treat the entire property as an undetermined project, and as a result, the extension cords are exposed on the driveway like a Christmas party trip hazard.

Quality Lights: Investment Pay.

The distinction between an exhibition that makes people turn their heads and one that does not is usually the lights. LEDs are superior to the traditional incandescent strands in all meaningful metrics such as operation cooler, reduced energy consumption, and work over several seasons. Warm white gives the traditional comfortable light that most architectures would like to have. The cool white is more modern and edgy. Store the multicolored ones in trees, where they belong; when over a roof they are apt to appear disheveled. Shop to the impression you desire, and not the price that has attracted your attention.

Measure, Buffer, Before and After.

Before you step in a shop, walk all the linear feet of what you are going to install such as gutters, tree trunks, the edges of the pathways, etc. Then add extra. Having no lights halfway up a line of 2nd story gutter is the type of thing that transforms a simple afternoon into a two day nightmare.

Use your Brain on your Electric Bill.

Holiday displays consume large amounts of amperage especially when the property is large. Determine the types of outdoor outlets that are on circuits together and allocate the load intentionally on more than one point. A sure method of breaking a circuit with the occasional flip of a breaker is to pile it all together and hope it will work that one night that you really needed it to.

Install the appropriate Hardware to remove easily.

Gutter clips and shingle hooks are used to fix the strands in place during the season and they come easy in January. The staples are also easier to install but they actually do some damage, punctured shingles are water holes that lead to troubles that are long lasting even after the holidays.