String of simple outdoor lights for top of garden fence?

NeilF · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:22

Looking for just a string of outdoor lights to hang along the top of about 25-30M of fence. Not to light the area, but simply for subtle asthetics. eg: A string of small bulbs say 20-60cm apart?

Really struggling to find anything.

Ideally the lead length from plug to first light should be about 5m too.

Jez · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:31

Outdoor christmas lights.....

sovietspybob · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:35

Make sure they're legit, i bought some 'outdoor' rated xmas lights last Christmas from eBay and they were lethal, they came with a super dodgy illegal copy of a UK plug which went straight into the string of lights at 240v with no fuse anywhere to be seen...

Mine were very similar to these but had an even worse copy of a euro plug on the end and a supplied even worse euro>uk adapter.

chroniclard · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:36

Seems to be a ton on Amazon?

NeilF · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:42

chroniclard said:
Seems to be a ton on Amazon?

Most of the strings seem to be G40 (or S14) bulbs which are quite large. ie: Around a golf ball! Looking for something small/more subtle.

Jez · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:48

sovietspybob said:
Make sure they're legit, i bought some 'outdoor' rated xmas lights last Christmas from eBay and they were lethal, they came with a super dodgy illegal copy of a UK plug which went straight into the string of lights at 240v with no fuse anywhere to be seen...

Mine were very similar to these but had an even worse copy of a euro plug on the end and a supplied even worse euro>uk adapter.

Remember you posting about those at the time. Definitely get some from a reputable vendor.

chroniclard · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:49

NeilF said:
Most of the strings seem to be G40 bulbs which are quite large. ie: Around a golf ball! Looking for something small/more subtle.

There are a few of the solar outdoor fairy string lights, 10-20 m variety, however I am not sure how long they would last/the quality as they are quite cheap.

Post up if you find anything decent looking, wife also wants some. :cry:

Or here has a load
Outdoor Fairy Lights | Lights4fun.co.uk

NeilF · 23 Sep 2021 at 11:51

chroniclard said:
There are a few of the solar outdoor fairy string lights, 10-20 m variety, however I am not sure how long they would last/the quality as they are quite cheap.

Post up if you find anything decent looking, wife also wants some.

Or here has a load
Outdoor Fairy Lights | Lights4fun.co.uk

Yeh, I plan to mains power mine from a smart plug in a weather proof box under the decking.

Just need to find 30m of lights using smaller/subtle bulbs...

NeilF · 23 Sep 2021 at 12:00

chroniclard said:
There are a few of the solar outdoor fairy string lights, 10-20 m variety, however I am not sure how long they would last/the quality as they are quite cheap.

Post up if you find anything decent looking, wife also wants some.

Or here has a load
Outdoor Fairy Lights | Lights4fun.co.uk

Rather go with small bulbs, but as a fall back maybe fairy lights then - https://www.lights4fun.co.uk/produc...rm-white-connectable-fairy-lights-clear-cable

Thing is they're going to live outside 24/7, and wire in below decking, so the last thing I want to do is be changing them every year or so.

chroniclard · 23 Sep 2021 at 12:45

NeilF said:
Rather go with small bulbs, but as a fall back maybe fairy lights then - https://www.lights4fun.co.uk/produc...rm-white-connectable-fairy-lights-clear-cable

Thing is they're going to live outside 24/7, and wire in below decking, so the last thing I want to do is be changing them every year or so.

Yeah, I wonder at the longevity of them.

a1ex2001 · 26 Sep 2021 at 07:12

The trouble you are going to have is that the larger bulbs are the trend so you basically have a choice of those or fairy lights. The build quality in the fairy lights never looks up to 24/7 out door use whereas the larger bulbed festoon lights seem to be built for this purpose.

Personally I’d go big bulbs it looks less like you forgot to take your Christmas lights down!

NeilF · 26 Sep 2021 at 11:33

a1ex2001 said:
The trouble you are going to have is that the larger bulbs are the trend so you basically have a choice of those or fairy lights. The build quality in the fairy lights never looks up to 24/7 out door use whereas the larger bulbed festoon lights seem to be built for this purpose.

Personally I’d go big bulbs it looks less like you forgot to take your Christmas lights down!

Yeh, that seems to be the nub of it.

Shame you can't get those festoon type lights with smaller more subtle bulbs. ie: A lot smaller than golf ball size.

Salsa · 26 Sep 2021 at 19:31

I've used techmar outdoor lights in our garden. Really easy to install, 12v and can can link multiple sets or extensions together and run them off a single weatherproof transformer. Think I have 6 different sets now all linked up.

Huge range of options including string LED lights.

https://www.lighting-direct.co.uk/techmar-plug-and-play-linea-100-warm-white-led-string-lights.html

/Salsa