Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I was hesitant to get these thinking that they would not put out enough light. They are actually perfect. Just the right amount of ambient outdoor lighting. I bought 3 (75 ft) and strung them from one corner of the back of my house to an elevated position in a tree in the middle of my back yard and then back to the house. Its in kind of a a pie wedge shape, with a slight "droop" on the returns. I wanted some nice light for my patio, without having to use the motion sensor flood lights, which are very bright.

The clear plastic "globe" housing is perfect as I was dragging these across my patio w/ no fear of breaking them (like glass). Bottom line is, these are pretty awesome, and I would recommend them to anyone looking for some nice ambient lighting.

I had been looking for an LED string of outdoor bulbs to string over my backyard. I have to say I was surprised that these were not in the packaging from Phillips but in generic white boxes that still had the Target Stores markings. Interesting since I didn’t buy them from Target.

When deploying keep in mind they are not strong enough to carry their own weight when more than 1 string is used in series. I ended up running thick wire from front to back and then connected the lights to the wire with the plastic hooks that are formed when they make the housing for each light socket. This method works really well and the light from my six strings is more than bright enough to illuminate for a party. As other commenters have stated, yes the plastic globes are all scratched when you open the box, but thats because they are just shoved in the box. When the lights are 8-10 feet of the ground you can’t see the scratches anymore.

I felt like I purchased them from ebay and not Amazon with the Target boxes, but I got what was advertised.

I love what these lights have done for my back yard. I have 6 sets up, three are on the walls surrounding the hard, and the other three are strung overhead for the European dinner garden / bistro look. (just over the lawn, though)

Temper your expectation. These are NOT the 0+ commercial quality heavy duty lights that hold full sized light bulbs… like you’d actually find in that dinner garden/bistro. They’re on par with fairly well-made outdoor Christmas lights. And like Christmas lights, you really don’t want to hold them in your hands and look very closely at them, but from a modest distance (lets say 3′ away in the dark, and 7′ away during the day) they do look nice, especially at night. During the day, if you walk right up and closely examine the ones on the fence, you can indeed see the mold lines in the plastic globes, etc. But the ones strung overhear are just far enough away that they really do look nice, even during the day… and who hangs out against the fence?

Similarly, and again with the Christmas light comparison: The electrical wire going from light to light is not especially strong. And the lights themselves are a good bit heavier than actual little Christmas lights. So you can’t string these over a long distance without giving them some support. It’s fine if you’re clipping them to something, but if you just want to run them over an open area, I recommend buying some inexpensive guy lines, which have a much higher weight handling capacity, to hold the tension. Then simply clip the lights to the guy line. Something like this, with a 180 lb weight rating, will be ample: Koch Industries 5630525 Coil Vinyl Coated Wire, 5/32-Inch by 100-Feet, Green

Another thing: the amount of light they put is very small… don’t expect to actually hold a dinner party under ONLY these lights, unless you all have excellent night vision.

BUT: What these lights DO offer, is a LOVELY ambient glow. You’re not going to see a dark object in the dark dirt, but you won’t trip over a tricycle on a moonless night, either. Think about how much light you have outside with the moon at about 3/4 on a clear night, and you have it about right. People can see each other, no problem, but it’s no floodlight. The other GREAT thing about these lights is how little juice they use: 2.4 watts per strand of 25 lights. That’s a whopping 7.2 watts for three strands (75′) worth! I’ve had nightlights that used more electricity. The upshot is all 6 strands only use 14.4 watts of light, so I am 100% comfortable putting them on a timer and running them 4-6 hours every night just for backyard ambiance, whether I’m out there or not. They make me smile every time I glance out the window. 🙂

One thing: Absolutely buy them from Target, unless Amazon lowers their price a lot. I think they’re about /strand now… far less than Amazon’s current price. I have no idea why Amazon is overcharging so much for them (just under ), unless Target is selling theirs at a loss (which I doubt).

I have a few photos posted in the user photos under my name. They’re a little hard to photograph since it’s really not that much light, but believe me, you can see them better in person, and they look great.