ATTN: Electrical Guru's (aka...BrianG)

[BrianG]

LEDs need between 2.5v and 3.5v each (depending on color) and around 15-20mA each. Then it depends on if they are wired in series or parallel.

If in series, you can hook around 45 LEDs in series with 120v (to get the peak voltage/divide that by 0.707), and then a current limiting resistor. Easy hook-up, but if one goes out, they all do, just like old style xmas tree lights. But, each LED string only requires that 15-20mA, so it uses very little energy.

If in parallel, each resistor will have a current limiting resistor in series with it, and then each resistor/LED set is in parallel. But, since each LED requires 15-20mA, 50 LEDs would require 1A total.

Because companies make these things as cheap as possible, I would say they are in series.

LEDs are nice because they use less power (all the heat from filament bulbs is wasted heat), and are much more shock-proof. But, they do have a lifespan, usually something like 100,000 hours. And white LEDs get yellow over time because they use a phosphorous coating which yellows.

[JThiessen]

I had one string where the last half went out, but all the rest only have lights here and there go out - almost always its a green or a blue light that went out.

On the string that had the last half go, I snipped off the wires one light before the last working one. I then cut off about 4 lights worth out of the bad end, and tried to rewire it (its a three wire set up) the bad section back on (thinking that there might be one light in there causing the rest to bad). I tried three or four different combos of the wires, but couldn't get anything to light up (even the part that did work). Didn't take me long before they ended up in the dumpster.

Oh well, I tried!