Choosing and installing your lights

Indoors, cotton ball fairy lights plug into a USB socket and give a soft glow; Mini LED string lights, on a very fine wire, suit a table, a shelf or a Christmas tree. Outdoors, choose a weatherproof model: solar cotton ball lights, festoon lights or solar Mini LED string lights.

No. The Classique, Air Control and Voice Control models are not weatherproof: they are made for indoor use. Outside, pick a model from our weatherproof range, rated IP55, which stands up to rain and has a reinforced cable.

• Cotton ball lights, indoor: 3.2 m (16 balls), 4 m (24 balls) or 4.8 m (32 balls), with 10 cm between balls;
• Solar ball lights, outdoor: 6 m (16 balls) or 9 m (32 balls), including 3 m of cable without balls, with 20 cm between balls;
• Festoon lights: 7.5 m (16 LEDs) or 15 m (32 LEDs);
• Mini LED: 10 m (100 LEDs) or 20 m (200 LEDs).

Our guide helps you choose room by room: how to choose the right length.

For a 1.5 m tree, allow one set of 32 cotton balls or 20 m of Mini LED lights. For 1.8 m, two sets of 32 balls or 20 m of Mini LED. For 2.1 m, three sets of 32 balls or 30 m of Mini LED. The full table and our 6-step method are in our guide to Christmas tree lights.

Indoors, use adhesive hooks or something already in place: a headboard, a shelf, a curtain pole, a stair rail. Outdoors, cable ties fix the lights to a pergola, a railing or a fence. Our festoon lights have a small hook above each bulb. You'll find 20 ideas in our guide on how to hang your lights.

Our lights run on low voltage (USB, 5 V) and their LEDs do not heat up: you can touch the balls while they are lit. All our products are CE and RoHS certified.

No. Our indoor lights plug in by USB and our outdoor models recharge in the sun. For lights with no trailing lead, plug them into a power bank: no batteries to buy or throw away.

It's better to switch them off when you leave the room for the night. The 2-hour night-light timer does it for you: the lights go off by themselves after bedtime.

Very little: 1.6 W for 16 balls, 2.4 W for 24 balls and 3.2 W for 32 balls. A 32-ball set lit for 6 hours a day for a month uses about 0.6 kWh.

Our indoor lights end in a USB plug: they connect to the mains adapter supplied, but also to a computer or a power bank, which makes them portable. Outdoors, solar lights need no socket at all.

Yes. They run on low voltage and do not heat up, and the 2-hour night-light timer switches them off after your child has fallen asleep. Fix them out of reach of very young children and tidy the cable away. More advice in our article on fairy lights as a children's night light.

Festoon lights can be extended: a 16-LED string takes a 16-LED extension, giving a maximum of 32 LEDs and 15 m. For cotton ball lights, the adapter supplied has two USB ports and so powers two sets; a single Air Control remote can drive up to 10. Extension leads are available in Accessories.