well, by removing some lights, you could actually be making the others brighter. i have a few strands that if you remove more than 1-2 lights, the strand gets real bright!

light strands are series-parallel circuits that are setup so that each bulb basically gets 1.5 to2.5 volts across it, depending on the exact setup of the strand. by removing bulbs, you change the ciruit resistance, and up the voltage to each bulb. as this happens, the bulb gets brighter and gives off more heat. remove enough and the circuit is broken completely on most stradns and you get no light.

also, you say unscrewing the bulbs, so i take it this is not the mini lights but the older 4 or 9 watt screw in bulbs. they will produce much more heat than the smaller bulbs.

as configured from the manufacturer, the bulbs should be safe. of course we all know that chinese crap may not be, but if the bulbs run cooler with all bulbs in, then i would leave it alone.

Thank you d&k. Dang! Thought I had the perfect solution for this $$$ tree, but China Cr-p, yes, of course:>/ These new mini lights are too bright as is, and this may also be due to the type of bulb...very white-bright looking vs. yellower/softer? Oh man! Suppose I must now go back and try to find all the ones I patiently unscrewed :>( Better that than melted plastic branches. Thanks again so much for your help.

"very white-bright looking vs. yellower/softer?"
This makes me think you might have bought LED lights, they're somewhat popular. However, LED's burn very cool to the touch, so I'm somewhat confused

Are the lights really melting plastic branches??? This is serious, as even the large screw-in incandescent bulbs shouldn't be getting hot enough to do this.

To clarify :...and thank you both for replying btw:>)...we bought the tree with lights attached...all white, clear bulbs, very small minis. As I was unscrewing them at random to create a less intensely bright tree, I noticed one was very hot...had to release it in seconds. "Hmm, this can't be right", so I unplugged them, ( 9' tree) and came here in search of advise. It was hot enough to melt the plastic, I think, if left on. I do so wish there were not so many, and such bright lights. I read somewhere on here that LED's are actually dimmer? Got the tree at Stats vs., say, Big Lots so should be okay...but, of course it IS from China. Also, could not find a tree with colored lights, so we had planned to add a strand of two of them. Oh boy! Gonna look like Hollywood 'round here :>/

I'm not an expert on LED's, but there are a lot of them running around that are VERY bright! Much brighter than normal bulbs. I even have an LED flashlight that's amazing. They are used in vehicle tail lights, and in fact, will be used soon for headlights. Less power, more light. Hard to beat that combination.

Think you are waaaaay to concerned about nothing. One of my three artificial trees has 1,500 pink lights that I wove onto the tree myself. Yes, the lights are a little warm to the touch and no, they have not melted the needles. Disconnecting some of the bulbs does not make the others burn brighter and/or hotter. Plug the bulbs back in and enjoy the tree. Find something serious to be concerned about.

also, once you put your other decorations onthe tree they will hide many of the lights. my tree is very bright when bare, but by the time we finish decorating it is fine.

now, outside my house you can read a newspaper at midnight 40 feet fromthe house. my wife is gonna kill me or put me in rehab if i don't stop buying outdoor lights!

Hey, thanks again all! Yeah, texasred, my DH says I'm picking salt out of the pepper...you're both probably correct. I will say, though, that worrying about a potential fire hazard is NOT petty. Hmmph :>) I'll go twist 'em back in and get busy decorating.... hope you're right D&K. Merry Christmas to you all :>)

David, you can join my husband in the doghouse when I put him in there for the same reason. :-) When we were at the store a couple of days ago, he was eyeing more electrical things for outside. I asked him where he thinks we're going to plug those IN. :-/

"I owe my soul to SDG&E...."

DonnaR/CA

I could win the Texas Utility award for the most use of electricity on my outside decorations. Swear you can hear the meter humming. Griswalds have nothing on me! Did I mention we have three indoor trees.