Chad from Idaho writes:
I’m looking to run about 2000 feet of lights on a fence and im wondering if thats possible and how i can order them? you site mentions 1000′ rolls, but i dont see them available to purchase? i do have power at each end.
Hi Chad,
You’ve asked a great question and the answer is probably longer than you expect.
What we carry in 1000-foot spools for C7 and C9 individually installed bulbs is manufactured with 18 AWG wire.
18 AWG wire cannot be run more than 250 feet in a single circuit so you’ll have to run several extension cords and splitters for your installation.
For 2000 feet of lights, that would be 8 different sections. Unless you have power in the middle of the fence, this may not be electrically feasibly.
See these spools here under the C7 and C9 cords. Be sure to order gilbert plugs and LED bulbs if you go this route.
https://www.christmas-light-source.com/collections/christmas-bulbs-cords
You can also see C7 and C9 cords in the pulldown menu under C7/C9 Bulbs and Cords at the top of the page.
As an alternative, I suggest you consider LED light strings with 3-wire harnesses that are ultra low current and can be run 100’s of feet in a single series run.
For instance, in our mutli c7 light string, it is approximately 16.5 feet long and can be run 87 sets in series. You could run 61 sets from one end of the fence and another 61 sets from the other for a total of 2013 feet. I’d also consider purchasing more light depending (perhaps 10% more) depending on how much “swag” you want in the lines or if you are going to install them in a straight line with little to no dip a few extra sets might be sufficient.
(Since I don’t have a photo of your fence line, it’s hard to give exact suggestions there.)
These are the C7 strings:
https://www.christmas-light-source.com/products/c7-multi-led-christmas-lights
You might also consider running light strings with smaller lenses. The 5mm lenses throw an amazing amount of light for such a small bulb and with either 6 or 4-inch spacing might be a good choice.
You can see those lights here:
https://www.christmas-light-source.com/collections/wide-angle-led-christmas-lights
Let’s look at the pure white 5mm lights as an example. They have 6 inches of wire between bulbs so they cover a little more ground per light string.
These lights can be run up to 43 sets in series for a distance of 1074 feet in a single run since they have a length of approximately 25 feet.
For mounting the lights, consider the surface mount clips as an option.
You can find them here:
https://www.christmas-light-source.com/collections/surface-mount-clips-category
Hope that sends you in the right direction.
We are running about 6000 ft of lights around our neighborhood common wall. We have a power source every 100 ft. When converting to LED (C9 and SPT-2 zip cord, plugs, etc) we were handed lots of 100 ft and 50 ft pre made strings. We want to reduce our number of power connections. Are you saying that we can not exceed 250 feet when connecting these 100’s and 50’s together? Meaning, we can not connect 3 100s together and power with one source. Thanks!
That is correct. You cannot connect 3 100-foot cords together if they are 18 AWG 10 amp cords.
Since that is on a common wall, you might exercise an abundance of caution and have an electrician take a quick look at your installation.
Sounds like it will be fantastic. Merry Christmas.