You
just finished decorating your Christmas tree with ornaments and Christmas
lights. Suddenly, you notice a few bulbs are burned out. No problem; you have
several spare bulbs in a drawer that you saved just for this moment. Wait,
these are old bulbs from several years ago and the base of the bulbs won't fit
into the socket of the burned out lights. What now?
Remove
the burned-out Christmas light bulb from its socket. Do this by carefully
applying upward pressure on the plastic base just below the glass bulb. It
helps to have fingernails when doing this. Try not to pull on the glass bulb.
Once
the old bulb has been removed, compare its base with that of the replacement
bulb. If it matches, then you should have no problem easily just inserting the
new bulb into the socket. If the bases do not match, then you will need to
remove both bulbs from their sockets and swap them.
You
will probably need to straighten the wires so that they will fit into the holes
of the socket.
To
remove a Christmas light from its socket, find the two copper wires at the base
of the bulb. Push both wires downward so that if the tip of the bulb is
pointing at the ceiling, then the wires will point towards the floor. Firmly
pull upward on the glass bulb and it should separate from the base. Do the same
thing with the replacement bulb.
With
both copper wires from the new bulb pointing straight down, insert the new bulb
into the old bulb's socket and try to align the copper wires with the two holes
at the bottom of the base. Once the wires have been inserted, press the bulb
completely down into the base. Push both wires upward so that they follow the
groove on each side of the bulb base. Now they should be facing the same
direction as the tip of the glass bulb. Insert this new arrangement into the
empty light socket and the bulb should illuminate!
Tips & Warnings
- Be careful when working with electricity! If possible, wrap a small piece of masking tape around the base of the burned-out bulbs to mark them and them perform the bulb replacement with the Christmas lights unplugged.
