Christmas Light After Winter Storm Cleon

Holiday-lights-on-iceOver the past few days we have received a large number of calls from customers who are having trouble with their Christmas lights.  Village Green is in the Christmas light business at this time of the year, so our customers (both business and commercial) are calling to tell us that large sections of their lights are not working.  The culprit is Cleon (the recent winter storm that dumped all the ice in our area.)  The issue is that Christmas lights have slight nicks or weak spots that allow moisture to seep into them.  Your roof lights will usually be ok, but on trees and shrubs water from the melting ice will wick in from the limbs and can trip the GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter.)  This is also true of any Christmas lights on the ground (like staked lights.)  In fact, any long soaking rain can seep into the wire and trip the GFI outlet.  Keep in mind that GFIs can be located in strange places.  It’s not unusual for a bathroom outlet to trip and turn off the holiday lights plugged in on the front porch.  If you are having issues look for GFIs on all outlets near water (think kitchens or bathroom and out in the garage.) Some newer homes will have the GFI built into the breaker switch in the breaker panel.  Once you find the GFI, press the button until it clicks and your holiday lights are once again shining brightly.  If that doesn’t resolve the problem, we tell our customers to wait a few hours (to allow the lights to dry out) and try the GFI again.  

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