Before you've hauled out the holly, grabbed your ladder, untangled light strands of holiday seasons past, and risked unleashing your inner Grinch, consult our guide to lock in your game plan.
Not long ago there was just one way to illuminate the outside of your home: string lights with large incandescent bulbs. Today, there is a variety of holiday lights-string, icicle, net, pathway, and spotlight-available with LED or incandescent bulbs. Incandescent lights are more affordable and emit a warmer glow, but LEDs are more energy efficient, last longer, and never get too hot to touch. You can connect together many more strings of LED lights than you can incandescent lights. Plus, LEDs typically produce much brighter, more vibrant light than incandescent bulbs. Some LEDs are programmable, allowing you to change the light color and select various illumination modes, such as always-on, twinkling, and sequential blinking.
The type and style of lighting that's right for your home depends on the look you want. We break down what you need and how to install four popular holiday lighting designs.
Highlight Your Roof
BEST LIGHTS FOR THE JOB:
C9 OR ICICLE
WHY THEY WORK / Both incandescent and LED string lights are sold in C6, C7, and C9 sizes. These strawberry-shaped string lights are the most traditional style and deliver a much-loved retro vibe. To showcase your roof, use C9s, which are larger, brighter, and more visible from the street compared to C6s and C7s.
Denne historien er fra November - December 2022-utgaven av Popular Mechanics US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra November - December 2022-utgaven av Popular Mechanics US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
ONE OF THE 'GREATEST THREATS' TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ISN'T WHAT YOU THINK.
EXPERTS ARE PREPARING THE REGION AGAINST THE THREAT OF DANGEROUS VOLCANIC MUDFLOWS, KNOWN AS LAHARS, WHICH COULD INUNDATE THE COMMUNITIES SURROUNDING MT. RAINIER IN AS LITTLE AS 30 MINUTES.
THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST ROW
They rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, battling unpredictable weather, chaotic seas, and finicky equipment. But what they discovered gave them profound new insights into the power of the ocean.
HOW TO DIY OFF-GRID SOLAR
SPEND THE TIME UP FRONT AND PLAN IT CAREFULLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT
Are We on the Verge of an ARMS RACE in SPACE?
RUMORS OF A RUSSIAN SPACE NUKE, ALONG WITH OTHER SATELLITE-TARGETING WEAPONS, HAVE MADE GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS EXTEND INTO ORBIT.
Fresh Fingerprints on an Ancient Statue
A CLAY FIGURINE HAS SPENT MILLENNIA incomplete, waiting at the bottom of a lake for its long-dead craftsman to finish the Iron Age-era statuette.
Quantum Entanglement in Our Brains
IT HAS LONG BEEN ARGUED THAT THE human brain is similar to a computer. But in reality, that's selling the brain pretty short.
The Tools of Copernicus
WAY BACK IN 1508, WITH ONLY LIMited tools at his disposal, Nicolaus Copernicus developed a celestial model of a heliocentric planetary system, which he described in hist landmark work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. It was a complete overhaul of our conception of the universe-one that, unfortunately, earned him the ire of the Catholic church for decades after his death-and forever changed the way we look at the stars.
Building a Sixth-Generation Bomber Raptor
THE GLOBAL COMBAT AIR Programme (GCAP)-a project by the U.K., Italy, and Japan to develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter-has been busy at the drawing board reshaping its vision of the future of air warfare. And judging by the new concept model unveiled at this year's Farnborough air show, that future has big triangular wings.
The Electroweak Force of the Early Universe
TODAY, THE UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT IS governed by four fundamental forces: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, and gravity.
This Ancient Fossil With a Brain and Guts
WE KNOW WHAT FOSSILS LOOK like. For example, typical dinosaur fossils are bones turned to stone and preserved from the passage of time, located, if we're particularly lucky, in large collections that can be reassembled to represent the beast they used to prop up in their entirety.
