Which Diwali Lights Suit a Balcony, Window or Gate?
Use a string light (laddi or jhalar) for the balcony railing, the gate and the edge of the roof. Use a curtain light, many short strings that hang from one top wire, for a window or the main door. Use a rope light, small bulbs inside a soft plastic tube, for one solid line of light. HandyPanda sells all of these in Gurgaon, at these prices as of 27 October 2026:
- Laddi, 15 m to 120 m: 15 m multicolour ₹73, 75 m ₹310, 120 m ₹482, 95 m ₹372
- Pixel laddi, 8 mm round bulbs: ₹104
- Diya curtain, 5 big and 5 small diyas: ₹207
- Star curtain, 10 stars: ₹275
- Waterfall curtain, 10 × 10: ₹290
- Golden lantern string, 10 lanterns: ₹111
Check the waterfall light before you buy it. Its product page calls it a 10 × 10 pixel waterfall with 8 mm pixels. So the name tells you the grid of bulbs. Measure your window first, then check the size printed on the box. Hang a curtain light from a curtain rod or a row of hooks, like a toran (door hanging).
Top photo: festive lights on the eve of Diwali, India, by Prabhakar Banerjee, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Do You Need a Rope Light or a Strip Light?
Buy a rope light for outside, such as the terrace (chhat) wall or the balcony edge. Buy a strip light, a flat tape of small LEDs, for a false ceiling, a shelf or the pooja corner (mandir). The Halonix Rope Light costs ₹4,278 on HandyPanda as of 27 October 2026. Its product page says it is 50 m long, with 120 LEDs per metre.
Other options, as of 27 October 2026:
- 45 m warm white rope, 220 V: ₹963
- Multicolour running rope: ₹1,049
- Crompton strip, 240 LED/m: ₹878
- Polycab driver, 12 V, 60 W: ₹510
The Crompton strip is a 5 m roll of warm white light. Its product page lists 36 W, 3M sticky tape, a 2-year warranty and 800 lumens per metre. Lumens measure brightness. A strip light does not plug straight into a socket. It needs a driver, a small box that changes mains power into low voltage, like a phone charger does. One 36 W roll fits inside the 60 W limit of the Polycab driver. Two rolls take 72 W, so buy one driver for each roll. Check that the voltage on the strip matches the driver.
Which Diwali Light Colour Combinations Work for a Home?
Here are four Diwali light colour combinations for home. Each keeps one main colour and adds one more at most:
- All warm white. Warm white laddi on the railing, a diya curtain on the window, warm white rope on the chhat wall.
- Warm white with gold. Add the golden lantern string at the main door or the mandir.
- Warm white with one colour. Add one orange or yellow laddi around the gate.
- Colour outside, warm white inside. Pixel laddi or running rope on the chhat, warm white near painted walls.
Clare, a paint company, says warm white bulbs bring out cream, beige and terracotta walls. Cool white light brings out blue, green and grey shades. HomeLane names gold and yellow among the warm colours for Diwali. It also suggests you leave some corners dark, so the room does not look flat.
A cream or terracotta wall looks right with warm white. A green or blue wall can take multicolour. For wall shades with paint codes, see our Diwali wall colour combinations post. Before you hang them, plug in all your warm white lights together and compare them.
How Many Metres of Diwali Lights Do You Need?
Measure the length of the railing or wall you want to light. Add the distance to the socket. Buy a box with that length printed on it, or a little more. For lines that hang down from the top, multiply the length of one line by the number of lines. Then add the length along the top. Measure this week, not on Dhanteras evening when you find you are 5 m short.
Take a Gurgaon builder floor or kothi. Its balcony has a 3.5 m front rail and two 1.5 m side rails, so one line is 6.5 m. Two lines, on the top and middle rails, make 13 m. Add 1 m to the socket, and you need 14 m. One 15 m multicolour string, ₹73 on HandyPanda as of 27 October 2026, is enough.
Now the chhat above it. You want 10 lines, each 3 m long, hanging down from its 9 m wall. That is 30 m, plus 9 m along the top and 2 m to the socket, so 41 m. A 65 m white wire string, ₹317 as of 27 October 2026, is enough and leaves 24 m for the gate.
How Many Light Strings Can One Socket Take?
Add up the watts (W) of every light and driver on one extension board. Keep the total below the board's watt limit. The IET festive safety guide, by London Fire Brigade, gives this rule. It also says to unroll a cable reel fully, so it does not overheat.
LED lights make this easier. The Ministry of Power UJALA factsheet says a 7 W LED bulb gives the same light as a 60 W old filament bulb, and saves almost 90 per cent of the energy. See our LED lighting guide.
If the box does not show the watts, do not use that laddi. Or ask an electrician to check how much power it takes. Panasonic India warns that an overloaded socket can overheat or short circuit. It also says not to plug one board into another. Delhi Fire Services officials name overloaded extension boards as a cause of Diwali short circuits.
Does the MCB trip just before puja? The circuit is taking more current than its limit, or a string has a short. Move some strings to another circuit. Do not fit a bigger MCB. Its size has to match the wire. See our MCB rating guide.
How Do You Hang Diwali Lights Safely on a Balcony or Terrace?
Outside, use only lights marked for outdoor use, and power them through an RCCB, a safety switch that cuts power if current leaks. London Fire Brigade warns that indoor-only lights used outside can cause electric shocks and fires. On HandyPanda, the photos of the diya curtain, waterfall curtain, pixel laddi and 45 m rope show an "Indoor & Outdoor Use" mark. The diya curtain photo also shows IP65, a dust and water rating. These marks are the seller's claim, so check the box too.
Delhi's Tata Power-DDL lists these rules:
- Do not let decorative lights touch metal poles or railings.
- Get an RCCB fitted to protect temporary wiring.
- Ask a qualified electrician to put up the lights.
- Use only ISI-marked electrical items.
The IET guide says all festive lights, inside and outside, go through a 30 mA RCD. An RCCB is one type of RCD. On a steel railing, tie the laddi to a wooden or PVC strip with nylon cable ties.
Plug in last year's laddi before you hang it. TPCODL, a Tata Power company, says not to use cracked sockets, cracked plugs or damaged wires. If the RCCB trips, look for water in outdoor plugs and joints.
How Do You Keep Diyas and Lights Away From Curtains?
Put each diya in a proper holder, away from curtains, decorations and clothes. Put it out when you leave the room or go to bed. Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue gives this advice on its Diwali page. It also suggests battery LED tea lights in place of candles.
Electric lights need space too. The IET guide says lights can get hot, so keep them away from decorations and other things that burn. Do not tie paper or cloth decorations onto the lights. Switch off all decorative lights before you go to bed or leave the house. Tata Power-DDL also says not to light diyas or candles near things that can catch fire. A curtain or a dupatta near the mandir is one example.
On Diwali, kids run all over the house. So on the stairs, window sills and around the rangoli, use a diya with no flame. The Water Sensor LED Diyas, Pack of 6, ₹172 on HandyPanda as of 27 October 2026, light up when you add water. There is no oil to spill and no wick to watch. Keep the clay diya with oil for the puja thali and the mandir, where an adult watches it.
Where Can You Buy Diwali Lights in Gurgaon Before Dhanteras?
HandyPanda delivers Diwali lights across Gurgaon in about 60 minutes. Order from the electricals category on the website or in the app. Dhanteras is on Friday, 6 November 2026, according to Drik Panchang, and Lakshmi Puja is on Sunday, 8 November.
Here is a full list for a balcony with a 3.5 m front rail and two 1.5 m side rails, plus a 9 m chhat wall, at HandyPanda prices as of 27 October 2026:
- 15 m multicolour string, balcony railing: ₹73
- Diya curtain, front window: ₹207
- 65 m white wire string, chhat wall and gate: ₹317
- Water sensor LED diyas, pack of 6: ₹172
- HPL extension board, 4 sockets, 4 m: ₹305
- Nylon cable ties, 250 mm: ₹171
The total is ₹1,245. Your week before Diwali is full of cleaning, the toran and the rangoli, so put the lights up a few days before Dhanteras. Switch everything on for one full evening and walk around the house. A dead string or a tripping MCB is easier to fix then than on Lakshmi Puja night. If a string fails or you are a few metres short, order one more. It reaches you in about an hour.