Advice for Lighting in a Sukkah

Question

I'm seeking advice for safe, cost-effective lighting inside a Sukkah.

My goals are:

1. Minimize risk of fire. Even florescent lights can get hot enough to spark dry kindling in certain circumstances.

2. Minimize energy consumption. Should I go with solar? Outdoor timers? See #3 below.

3. Minimize up-front costs. Timers or solar-powered LEDs seem like a great idea for the first two, but so far I've seen some prohibitively expensive and complicated solutions involving retrofitting florescent-tube fixtures to operate LED tubes.

4. Simple installation - see #3 above.

5. Have a Sukkah that is lit as brightly as my dining room.

6. To have a Sukkah in which I can entertain guests who will want to hang out in the Sukkah long after the meal has ended.

Answer 1

I use strands of white holiday lights like these or these (often cheap on December 26!), powered by a heavy-duty extension cord that is plugged in in the garage, with foil plastic and electrical tape around plugs that are outside (the second strand plugged into the first, etc). I've had no safety problems since starting to wrap the plugs; before I did that, one year I tripped a GFI. These lights are designed to be strung on people's houses and in their windows and the bulbs do not get hot enough to cause a risk of fire. I can touch them with my bare hands after they've been on for hours without issues.

I run the strings up the side of the door (tying it in place once near the bottom and once at the top) and then run it along the top of the walls all around, just tying it in the corners. (A system of clips could make that faster, but it takes me about 3 minutes to put up my lights so I haven't bothered.)

For my 8x8 sukkah this provides ample illumination, but for a bigger one I'd just add another strand and run them across the "ceiling" too, in addition to along the walls, or double the strand along the walls. These lights are designed to be daisy-chained to a point. While I haven't done this myself, I've also seen sukkot that add a single larger light (sometimes LED) from the center; that gives plenty of light but is more expensive than the strands of smaller lights.

As for operating costs, during chol hamoed I just plug the lights in before using the sukkah and for yom tov I just leave them on. A timer would reduce the wasted electricity on yom tov if you're concerned about that.

Answer 2

This year, I ran an outdoor-rated extension cord (not hard to come by) out a window (through the already-insulated gap where an air conditioner is) to the sukkah and plugged in a five-bulb lighting string, also outdoor-rated. I used yellow anti-bug CFLs, again outdoor-rated.

When I've asked in Home Depot about plugging things in outside, I've gotten the following suggestion multiple times: wrap the connection tightly with a plastic baggie, then use electrical tape to tape up the edges of the baggie. I used this where the lighting string plugged into the electrical cord.

The yellow light does a great job of not attracting bugs. Our ~8'x10' sukkah is comfortably and warmly lit, if a bit yellow* (and probably not as bright as SethJ's dining room). The total power usage is 65 W, and the total fixed cost was ~$85, with all materials reusable in future years (including the CFLs, which ought to last a while). I'm confident that the setup is safe, since everything is outdoor-rated, the sechach provides some additional rain protection, and the CFLs don't emit much heat.

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* The yellowness of the light has an interesting effect. At night, when these bulbs provide nearly all the light in the sukkah, the yellow ratchet straps (similar to this I use for "lavud" purposes seem to be white.

Answer 3

If your sukkah is on your porch, often you have a porch light already there.

Some people have an outdoors outlet and plug a light into there. Anyone have their experience with this? How waterproof/safe is this?

I've tried some solar-powered-walkway-light devices, but they haven't been bright enough.

This year we used a 4-D-battery, LED camping lantern. It's worked fine despite all the rain; I'm not concerned about it burning or electrocuting anything; it provided enough light for us to see our food (though it still felt like nighttime); and with fresh batteries and turned on right before yomtov, it was still providing light (though slightly dimmer) 50+ hours later, good enough for the third night of a 3-day yomtov.

Answer 4

I've been using shop lights (similar to this) for years now; two of them, each with two fluorescent bulbs, comfortably light up my 30' x 9' sukkah.

I plug them into a regular power strip, which in turn is plugged into an extension cord rated for outdoor use. I used to put a plastic bag over the power strip to protect it from the rain, but didn't do so this year - turns out it wasn't necessary: despite all the rain, nothing has shorted out, B"H.