“A good rule of thumb is 100 lights for every foot-and-a-half of tree,” according to Lowe’s. But Better Homes & Gardens recommends using three 100-light sets for every foot of a tree’s height. And Real Simple suggests 100 lights for every foot.
Since there’s no consensus about just how many lights is right, trimming a tree can be daunting for novice decorators. It’s even given headaches to mathematicians like Troy Henderson, a professor at the University of Mobile’s College of Arts and Sciences in Alabama. Last year, he developed what he describes as a hack to perfectly light a Christmas tree. By thinking of a holiday evergreen as an inverted cone, Henderson used the mathematical concept known as the conical helix to determine the right number of lights for his tree. He explained:
“Our Christmas tree is 3½ feet wide at its base and 8 feet tall. When using 75 feet of lights, the vertical spacing between rotations is about 7 inches. This ensures that if we begin wrapping the lights in a conical helix pattern beginning at the bottom of the tree and vertically space the lights by about 7 inches between successive rotations, the strands of lights will terminate precisely at the top of the tree.”
Henderson has made his Christmas tree light-spacing formula available to the public, and Dominik Czernia and Álvaro Díez, physics doctoral candidates studying in Poland and Turkey, respectively, have expanded on the mathematician’s work. They feature their approach on a web tool called the Omni Calculator. The free calculator factors in tree lights and ornaments and provides users with step-by-step computation and visualization. To use it, you’ll need to know some basic information, such as your tree’s height and bottom diameter, the length and spacing of the light strands, and the diameter of the ornaments you plan to use.
So who’s most likely to use a Christmas tree calculator? Is it designed for the math-and-science crowd or for anyone who wants a perfectly decorated tree? I interviewed Czernia and Omni Calculator Project founder Mateusz Mucha about the tool.
Omni Calculator
Nadra Nittle
Who knew that decorating a Christmas tree even stumps physicists? What prompted you all to develop a web tool that could simplify this process for everyone?
Dominik Czernia
We had been wondering how many lights and ornaments make a Christmas tree so beautiful. To our surprise, it was impossible for us to make at least some rough estimations. With the help of Dr. Henderson’s formula, we developed our intuitive tool with visualization of your perfect tree with lights and baubles. The best thing about it is the simplicity — all you need to enter are your tree’s dimensions.
Nadra Nittle
The conical helix is the key to the calculator. Can you describe how this pattern works in more detail?
Dominik Czernia
We surely can all agree that when we look at the Christmas tree, its shape reminds us of a cone, a pyramid with a circular base. So what does the conical helix have in common with a cone? Imagine you’ve got a ribbon that you attach to the top of a cone. Then start wrapping it around the cone, moving downwards until you reach the base. The curve formed by the ribbon is a conical helix.
Using the conical helix pattern, it’s helpful to look at a Christmas tree from the top while decorating it. Why is that?
Dominik Czernia
One of the aesthetic factors that please most people is uniformity. The best way to check it is to look at a Christmas tree from the top so you can see every single ornament on it. Do they look uniformly distributed from that point of view? Perfect! That’s what we’re aiming for. This is another unique feature of a conical helix; it gives us excellent uniformity.
Nadra Nittle
An efficiently decorated tree might even help cut down on electricity costs. That’s amazing.
Dominik Czernia
It surely could help. The larger number of lights naturally translates into higher power consumption. However, we don’t want to resign from the lights entirely; they’re one of those things which bring a magical Christmas atmosphere. What we can do, though, is plan in advance how bright our Christmas tree should be to buy light strands of appropriate length.
This allows us to avoid the situation in which the light strand is too long, and we hide it somewhere in the tree foliage or leave it trailing on the floor. But still, these redundant lights will use electricity and generate costs! A well-decorated tree has uniformly distributed lights around; thus, it looks as pretty as we wanted, and simultaneously, the length of strands is perfectly adjusted to the Christmas tree’s dimensions.
Nadra Nittle
Who’s the target audience for the Omni Calculator? Is it mostly math-and-science types, or have normies expressed interest?
Mateusz Mucha
Omni Calculator is used both by geeks and people who aren’t as confident with math, but it’s actually the latter group we think about the most. People have thousands of decisions to make that they should base on numbers. But they don’t think in terms of math formulas, don’t have the time, or just don’t feel like making this effort. And they end up making bad decisions. It’s our goal to make this process easy, fast, and kind of fun so that people are more likely to do the math.
Nadra Nittle
On the Omni Calculator site, there’s a funny gif of Monica from Friends. She turns a Christmas tree around to show off her expertly decorated side of the tree and to hide the very messy side her friends decorated. Do you think Monica would use your calculator?
Mateusz Mucha
Sure, but it’s actually Joey and Rachel who could get the most value out of it. Chandler suffers through Excel every day, so he’d be capable. Ross would somehow make the tree about dinosaurs, and Phoebe would try to save the tree and homeless squirrels instead.
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We recommend as a guide you use approx 30 lights per foot in height of your Christmas Tree. For example, a 4ft. Christmas tree should have 120 Christmas tree lights, 5ft. tree 150 lights, 6ft tree 180 lights and a 7ft tree 210 lights.
How Many Lights for Christmas Trees? Plan for a minimum of 100 lights per vertical foot when wrapping indoor Christmas trees & consider purchasing a few extra light strings to ensure you have complete coverage. Any light strings not used can serve as backups in the future should you need an extra string or two.
“A good rule of thumb is 100 lights for every foot-and-a-half of tree,” according to Lowe's. But Better Homes & Gardens recommends using three 100-light sets for every foot of a tree's height. And Real Simple suggests 100 lights for every foot.
How Many Lights Do I Need For My Tree? Our golden rule is 100 bulbs or 5 metres of lights per 2ft of Christmas tree. For a 6ft tree we recommend 300 bulbs or 15 metres of lights.
Don't overcrowd your Christmas tree with too many lights. It is not good for the tree and doesn't improve the look. Sometimes – fewer can be much better.
Easy answer: Start with at least 100 mini lights per foot of tree plus an extra set of lights to hang inside the tree along the trunk. That's a great place to start as you plan your tree decorations.
You need to measure the length and width of your patio space, add those together, and multiply by 2. What is this? That will give you the total perimeter and total length of lights you need. Simple.
To give your Christmas tree a professional look, string them a little randomly, to give your lights a more organic, natural feel. As you work, place some lights deeper into the branches and place some closer to the front to create depth.
When hanging Christmas tree lights on a tree, you should plan on using 100 lights for every foot of your tree's height. So for a six-foot tree, you'll need about 600 lights.
For example, a 100-count string of incandescent mini lights runs at 40 watts, while a 70 count of 5mm Wide Angle LEDs is approximately 4.8 watts total. In fact, because incandescent wattage is 80-90% more than LED wattage, the cost to power an incandescent can be up to 90x greater than powering an LED.
The best way to shorten lights wired in series is to remove an entire series section of lights by cutting lights apart where there are only has two wires, with the lights unplugged.Then, simply cap each of the two cut wires with a wire connector.
Add a quart of water to your tree stand for every inch of the trunk's diameter. The key to maintaining a fresh Christmas tree is to keep the bottom 2 inches of the trunk immersed in water, even if that means refilling the stand every day.
Plug in the lights to make sure all the bulbs are working. Starting at the top of the tree, intertwine the lights on top of and under branches. Work your way down and around the tree, hanging lights in the back as well. When you reach the bottom, hide any extra lights behind the tree.
While it might seem like a festive treat for the neighbors, it could lead to problems for your home and electricity over time. Before leaving lights on, check the label to determine whether the bulbs and wattage can handle a long night of illumination. Generally, we recommend turning them off before bed.
If Christmas lights are left on for too long, they can get hot and become a fire hazard. For this reason, turn your lights off when you go to sleep or leave your home, says Sharon Cooksey, fire safety educator at Kidde.
How tall should a Christmas tree be? 7 foot artificial Christmas trees are currently the most popular height for residential homes as they're big enough to light up your living room but don't overwhelm the space.
How many strands do I need? A general rule is to use 100 lights for every 1.5 feet of tree. However, if you love lights, you may want to double or even triple that amount.
Why? Because light strings have a maximum wattage capacity, which is why many string lights come with a little fuse just in case you connect too many together at once. The fuse is designed to blow so you don't overload and damage your Christmas lights.
So, while these homeowners could safely plug 144 strands into one 15-amp outlet in terms of total wattage, the connected lights should never go higher than 210 watts, meaning that only 21 total strands can actually be plugged into each other. Every set of 21 strands would need its own outlet, but not its own circuit.
Our top pick for indoor Christmas lights is the Wintergreen Lighting 5mm LED Red and White Christmas Lights, which blew away the competition in terms of their brightness and quality. They're available in several color schemes, and each strand is 24 feet long with 70 extra-bright bulbs (other options available).
Bright white Christmas lights are the alluring all-rounders of the LED world. That's because, whether you've got a white Christmas tree or a green Christmas tree, this colour complements any December display.
Clearly, the vertical height of your tree determines how many lights you'll need. If you're leaning more toward a conservative lighting approach, then use 100 mini lights per vertical foot. If you're going for a brighter look, try using 200 mini lights per vertical foot.
300 LED String Lights Outdoor Indoor, Extra Long 98.5FT Christmas Lights, 8 Lighting Modes, Plug in Waterproof Fairy Lights for Wedding Party Bedroom Decorations (Warm White)
To determine the number of C7 or C9 lights for your tree, try the following: Ht x diameter (divided by 2) for trees up to 7 feet = number of lights.Ht x diameter (divided by 3) for trees 7 1/2" and up = number of lights.
For a basic look our number one rule is at least 100 bulbs per 1ft of tree – so that would mean a 6ft tree needs a minimum of 600 LEDs. For a fuller look, you can add as many lights as you want but we recommend upwards of 700 for a 6ft tree.
By Kelli Harvey | Updated Nov 20, 2022. Christmas Light Bulbs. C7 & C9 light bulbs are the most widely recognized Christmas lights. C7 bulbs have E12 Candelabra bases while C9 bulbs have E17 Intermediate bases. Each bulb base should be paired with a light socket of the corresponding size.
Take a tape measure with you to determine the spacing between lights, and buy sets that come with less than 12 inches between bulbs. Typically, larger bulbs, like chunky C7s or C9s for the roof, look best when the lights are between 6 and 10 inches apart.
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