Each year, people are injured through handling poorly maintained or poorly designed Christmas tree lights and unfortunately it is likely to happen again this year. Until the introduction of LED Christmas lights which run at low voltages such as 12 or 24V, most Christmas tree lights were series wired and supplied at mains voltage (230V). Series wiring means that the voltage is divided across the number of individual lights, so 20 lights on the tree means each light operates at 11.5 volts.

 

Whilst each light is running at a low voltage, the wiring has the full mains voltage applied so any contact with the copper conductors in the cable could result in a serious electric shock.

 

Each January we pack away our decorations including the Christmas tree lights and typically we coil the cable before storing it. The cable stays coiled all year until we dress the tree again and the uncoiling of the cable can result in old brittle cable insulation coming loose, exposing the copper conductors.

 

It is advisable to replace old “series wired” Christmas tree lights with new low voltage versions. You can tell the older lighting because its cables will be connected directly to a conventional plug top and not through a transformer or transformer plug top.

 

Where Christmas lighting is installed outside, it should be protected by a residual current device (RCD) or combined RCD and miniature circuit breaker (MCB).

 

Cost of cooking Christmas dinner

 

Christmas is a hard time for most peoples domestic cooker, particularly if it’s all electric. Usually only on special occasions such as Christmas day, do we use all the rings on the cooked and the oven at the same time. It is easy to overload the electrical circuit to the cooker when all its heating elements are in use and if the circuit does trip out, you shouldn’t just turn it back on. Where possible, and where you know you will be using your cooker heavily, you should consider preparing some foods in advance to spread the load.

 

We know that Christmas dinner can be an expensive affair, yet few consider the cost of actually cooking it. Take for example, a family gathering of say 8 people, the cooker could be roasting a turkey for 4 or 5 hours and perhaps an hour for all the cooker rings to be switched on for cooking vegetables etc. At a rate of say 12 pence per kWh, the meal could cost around £2.30 to cook on a typical all electric cooker. Microwave ovens use less power and you should consider using these if you would like to save on cooking costs. Christmas puddings are a great example of how much energy microwave cooking can save. Typically under 10 minutes in a microwave compared to a few hours steaming the traditional way.

 

Rechargeable batteries

 

It’s easy to see the benefits of rechargeable batteries for Christmas toys, as they are environmentally better in use and cost pence to recharge. Compared to the cost of buying traditional disposable batteries, the appeal is obvious once the initial outlay has been made. Care should be taken however when handing charged batteries as they operate in a different way to traditional zinc or alkaline batteries and can result in injury if not handled correctly.

 

The chemistry in traditional batteries means that if they are subject to short circuits (connecting the positive and negative terminals directly together for example), the current flowing through the short circuit will be limited by their internal resistance. They will still heat up and could cause damage so don’t try it!

 

Rechargeable batteries, however generally have a lower internal resistance which means that if they are subject to a short circuit, much higher currents will flow and the risk of serious injury or fire is much greater.

 

General care should always be taken when handling batteries of any kind and they should never be put in pockets for example, where contact with coins or keys could cause a short circuit. Children are a particular risk especially at Christmas when lots of new toys need batteries and complacency in handling them could lead to an injury.