Christmas lights being sold in Ireland may be dangerous and misleading.
A warning has been issued to Irish consumers by Gabriel Byrne, otherwise known as Mr. Christmas Lighting (not the Usual Suspects star) urging people to think carefully when decorating their house with Christmas lights over December.
Byrne, founder of the Dublin store Fantasy Lights, said that lights currently sold in Ireland are not necessarily suited to our weather conditions, even when advertised as doing so.
“Many of the lights being sold in Ireland are marked for both indoor and outdoor use – which leads people to think that they are safe for both.”
However, he said, “in many cases they represent a real danger to the user if the transformer is plugged in out of doors.” He added that in Irish weather conditions “plastic cables tend to pull apart very easily, creating dangerous situations especially when lights are at ground level or wrapped around trees, within reach of children or pets.”
“I have seen instances of people putting transformers and extension cables in plastic bags to shield them from the elements, which is extremely dangerous when dealing with what is high-voltage electricity in a damp environment”, he said, according to The Irish Mirror.
Advising that any lights with pins on the plugs should be for indoor use only, Byrne recommended installing twin sockets and rubberised low-voltage transformers when decorating outdoors. He also took a moment to point out that Fantasy Lights have now launched their own specific line of low-voltage outdoor safety lights.
“While we use weatherproof connections on all of our joints, I shudder sometimes when I see some of the chances people take with electricity when it comes to the festive season.”
Fantasy Lights was set up in 1989 by Gabriel Byrne and they have since become beloved for lighting up many of Dublin’s streets over Christmas.
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