Christmas Lights

How to hook up outdoor lights

Dec 2005

I'm almost embarassed to ask this, but how do you plug in outside lights without having a bulky cord going through a cracked window all winter? Do people have outdoor outlets? I bought one of those stake things that houses a few outlets, but it has a heavy cord that I then have to put through a window. I'm thinking there must some secret that I'm just not getting! Thanks for any tips! Tracy

The secret is getting an outdoor outlet installed by a professional electrician! By code, it needs to have the kind of cover that you put the plug inside and snap shut, and just like kitchen and bathroom outlets should be on a ''dedicated circuit''. These things are for safety. It shouldn't be outrageously expensive to do this, but expect to pay professional fees for a proper job. An outdoor outlet can be useful to have anyway- have it installed in a place where you could use it for things like vacuuming out your car, plugging in a drill or saw, etc. anon

Do you have a porch light or something similar outside? One thing you might be able to do is buy an outlet that you can screw into a light socket. Doesn't solve the the ugly cord problem but keeps you from having to pass the cord through a window. anon