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When one light bulb of a christmas light breaks why does the rest of them stop working from that light?

ANYONE? PLEASE?

Public Comments

1. because they are all connected to the same unit (wire)
2. It's because most of them are in a series circuit: when the light blows, it makes a hole in the circuit, which breaks it, kinda like turning off a lightswitch.
3. Because the cheaper sets are wired in series, not parallel. When one breaks, it breaks the entire circuit.
4. It means the problem is in the wire, not in the bulb. If the wire breaks at that spot then nothing after the wire breakage will work.
5. On Older sets of lights you needed every light to be working and in place in order to complete the Circuit. With out ONE light the currant wouldn't be able to be passed along to the next light bulb. Newer Light sets should be able to handle having a light out.
   
   -Kyle
6. You mean when one burns out? The newer ones stay lit........
7. It's because they are wired in series - meaning they all share a continuous wire and if one bulb burns out, it causes a short in the cable, and the electricity can't form a complete circuit.
8. Because it breaks the circuit and the electricty can no longer travel through the whole string.
9. Its irritating isnt it !!!! I hate that. Thats why they give you extra bulbs in the pkg. So then you can go through the entire strand and find it.....ohhhh christmas tree ohhhh christmas tree....keep your humor.
10. They are wired in series. One wire carries the load for the lights. Those are the cheaper lights. The ones that are wired in parallel won't do that.
11. It goes in a circuit. If one bulb doesn't need electricity it stops at the bulb that doesn't work
12. it's for safety to prevent a short thus preventing a fire & saving your house.
13. Because the wire in the bulb is a continuation of the electric cable; any break in the cable/bulb stops the electrical feed to the remaining bulbs.
14. because it breaks the flow of electricity that is circulating through the cord from one bulb to the next....or it could just be gremlins.
15. I think it's cause they're all on the same wire. If one breaks, it's like cutting off the electricity to the rest of them. But I'm not completly sure.
16. the others will need current that till then passed through the light bulb to get to them. When the bulb breaks, its filament breaks and the current will stop flowing through it to the other ones.
17. They are in series. Get the lights that stay lit if one goes out. It is also easier to find the burned out bulb.
18. becuase the shot curcuit of electricity stops and then you have to go through all the lightbulbs to find the one that whent out. Next, time get the more nice and expensive ones then you dont have to go through that and you will save a lot of money.
19. This is very old style light string. They are constructed with the light bulb as part of the circuit. When the bulb burns out it acts just like a fuse, the circuit is opened and the whole string goes out.
20. They are wired in a series, which is similar to a garden hose, if kink the hose no water gets by. The newer lights are wired parallel, which is similar to blocking one hole of a sprinker water still gets to the rest of the holes but not that one.
    
    
    
    The ways to fix this are to start at the beginning of the strand and replace each bulb, starting with a good bulb, and graduating each one forward and hoping 2 bulbs aren't out, OR throw the strand away, along with the frustration and by new lights.
21. Because they use a lot of low voltage bulbs wired in series. If one bulb goes it has the same effect as cutting the wire. There is no complete cicuit.
22. Because-- there is only a single strand of wire going from one prong of the wall plug into and out of each bulb until that single strand finally returns to the other side of the wall plug. The light filaments are simply continuations of that single strand. When a filiment burns through, the strand is broken and there is no path for the electrons. The solution is to have a straight strand of heavier wire lead out from each plug prong but not joined at their far end. Then, each light filament is connected from the outcoming strand to the returning strand. When one filament burns through the rest are still connected to both strands and continue to light. The major disadvantage is that the "solution" construction is more costly to manufacture so has to sell for more. A second disadvantage is-- when a filament of the "solution" design fails, there is an increase of current flow through the filaments still operating. They all burn a wee bit brighter and their operating temperature rises which, in turn, reduces their life. If too many fail the current will increase enough to burn them all out and then the loop would be broken as in the cheap design.
23. They're wired in series. Some of the stringers that keep burning with one bulb burned out are wired in series too but they're shunted at the sockets.
24. The question is not entirely correct. Most answers are partially correct. Please look at this page:
    
    
    
    http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/christmas-lights1.htm
    
    
    
    Question states:
    
    When one light bulb of a Christmas light breaks, the rest of them stop working from that light.
    
    
    
    In short:
    
    
    
    Case 1:
    
    2.5-volt mini-lights, connected each 50 bulbs in series: When one light fails, either only that one (if shunt wire works) or that one and 49 others (**before** and after the light bulb) will become dark. More about all this below (see "case 1" below).
    
    
    
    Case 2:
    
    120-volt Christmas lights, all connected in parallel: When one fails, only that one will go dark.
    
    
    
    But case 2 is highly unlikely, because parallel lights are not used much **anymore** (this is old technology, not new):
    
    http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/christmas-lights.htm
    
    
    
    Such parallel-connected lights run hotter (more likely to cause a fire or burn you), and are less efficient yet more expensive.
    
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------
    
    
    
    Case 1:
    
    
    
    If you have those standard 2.5 volt mini-lights, they are wired to have every 50 such light bulbs in series, so that they can be used with 120 volts.
    
    
    
    First error in the question: If any of these 50 lights die (and their shunt does not work; read about it below), all 50 lights will be off -- they won't be off "starting from the dead light bulb". Everything before and after the dead light bulb will be off.
    
    
    
    Often the light bulb is just loose, not dead. Again, 50 light bulbs will go dark in this case. Just push the bulbs in a little to fix this common problem.
    
    
    
    Recent 2.5 volt mini-lights have a shunt wire. Take a look at one of yours; it probably has a shunt wire under its filament. Scroll down on this page (same page as before) to see the description and red-arrow-marked image of shunt:
    
    http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/christmas-lights1.htm
    
    
    
    When the bulb burns out, the shunt wire ideally heats up and turns into almost-short-circuit, so the current bypasses this dead bulb and reaches all other bulbs.
    
    
    
    So if a bulb burns out and the shunt wire works, now only that one light bulb is dark while the other 49 are getting a tiny bit more voltage on each one. Now, you would only have one dark light bulb.
    
    
    
    (BTW, each bulb gets higher voltage after one shunts-out, but this is only 1.5% higher, and you really reach 2.5 volts per bulb only after three bulbs shunt-out and fall from 7-8 ohms live bulb to 2-3 ohms shunt wire)
    
    
    
    
    
    More Than 50 Light Bulbs, Some Dead, Some Alive:
    
    
    
    Let's call these 50 mini-light bulbs that are connected in series A1, A2, ... A50.
    
    
    
    If you have 150 lights on a string there are three such 50-light groups. These groups, in turn, are connected in parallel. Now you also have B1, B2, ... B50, as well as C1, C2, ... C50 (see the last image in the link above).
    
    
    
    If C35 dies and its shunt does not work, all 50 light bulbs C1, C2 ... C50 will be dark, but 100 lights (A1.. A50 and B1..B50) will still work. This is not "dark after the dead bulb"; rather, one 50-bulb set goes dark.
    
    
    
    Same thing would happen if any C bulb was loose or if the C-circuit wire was cut/broken at any place along the circuit.
    
    
    
    
    
    Use A Tool To Find Problem Spot:
    
    
    
    You can use tools to find the dead or loose bulb or broken circuit (scroll down to see image of the tool):
    
    http://www.ciphersbyritter.com/RADELECT/LITES/XMSLITES.HTM
    
    
    
    I found this tool mentioned at $35 at one site and $170 - $240 for eight of them at once (who needs that!?) at other sites. This "pro" version of the tool can even fix a dead bulb with a failed shunt by melting its shunt to form short-circuit to bypass burned bulb. In this case, only the dead-bulb will remain dark. You can then replace that one, if you'd like.
    
    
    
    Even if fixing does not work, this tool and its non-pro older cheaper versions can find where the dead bulb is, by using proximity testing for the line voltage hum (60 hertz electromagnetic wave detection):
    
    
    
    http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/question270.htm
    
    
    
    ----------------------------------------------------
    
    
    
    Case 2:
    
    
    
    And yes, there are in-parallel Christmas lights where when one dies, only that one would go dark, and all others would work (and using the above tool would not make sense because there is no shunt to fix).
    
    
    
    If one of these in-parallel lights is all dark or dark after one point in the wire, suspect a problem with the wires.
    
    
    
    But these lights are not used much **anymore** as I mentioned at the top.