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Dealing with ice and snow


Klayfish

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Yeah, I know, the easy answer is move to Florida.  :D   Trust me, my wife and I have talked about it more than once. 

 

My disasterous 2013 season is continuing.  After the controller fire, I got my show back up and running (thanks again LOR!!!).  Last year was my first season with LOR and we had no snow.  Early last week, we had about 2 inches and it's been very cold, so it didn't melt.  No big deal, still got my show up and going.  On Saturday, we got 4" more of snow, topped with a solid 1/2" of ice.  Now I've got a GFI tripped, very likely because something is buried in the snow and is wet (we had some melting yesterday).  Trouble is the snow is deep enough that everything is completely buried, so I can't see anything.  I admit I don't have every electrical connection up off the ground (my control boxes definitely are).  But even if I did, they'd still be buried...I've got a lot of stuff up with those C9/C7 light stakes and they're completely buried too so that I can't see them either. 

 

So how do you folks who get a lot of ice/snow deal with it and keep your show running?  At this point, I guess I have to wait for the snow to melt...which I'm hoping will be Thursday or Friday.  Do you guys go out in the snow and unbury everything?  I can't imagine how much time that would take.

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Had the same-thing happen to me the other day. Yep, went out and knocked of the ice and snow at the connections. Most of mine are off the ground a little, but it rained then froze and it tripped the GFI. After cleaning, it works fine.

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Unplug the connections to your controller that's tripping.  Run a sequence or the HU with all lights on.  Plug in one item at a time till GFI trips.  Unplug that item then reset and continue plugging in rest to see if it trips again.  Anything that is causing it to trip, leave unplugged until you can trace out all the wires and check all connections that could be causing it to go to ground.  It could even be a cord with a crack in it.

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We got about 6 inches of snow this weekend up in my neck of the woods. Thankfully it was blowing snow and didn't accumulate on the roof which would have been a pain to clean.

Everything else that is ground mounted is buried, especially the extension cords. Knock on wood, but the show run Friday, Saturday and Sunday night without incident. 

Maybe in the future when installing things, try and keep all your cords running in the same vicinity that way if you do have to dig them out of the snow you're only digging in a small area and not hunting around the entire lawn.

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Fort Mcmurray, it's been as cold as -45 deg C over the past 2 weeks and we have a foot or 2 of snow. Fortunately it never really gets warm enough to melt so I don't have that problem. I decided to mount my controllers in the garage and run the cords under the garage door. Once all the cords were run I banked the garage door with snow to keep the cold out and haven't had any problems so far. Next year I'm going to risk moving the controllers outside as the show is going to get alot bigger. Check em out if you wish

 

 

 

 

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Chicago has about 6 inch of snow with more to come. And cold cold cold but my show is issue free so far. I have my controllers mounted in my basement. My ground lights get covered every night and I use a broom to push it away but I will bust out the gas leaf blower to melt it down a bit. I may look Iike a weirdo but o well.

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It'll get worse yet! LOL. We dip below -50 deg C with the wind chill usually for at least a week every year. Usually January and February are our worst months followed by relentless snow in March to make spring come later. I'll start decorating end of September beginning of October next year just beat the snow and cold as well as do something for halloween as well.

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A bit late for this year but your success in combatting this next year will be preparation. When I lived up in snow country... all my elements were at least 6 inches off the ground so the snow wouldn't bury them. Pay close attention to making sure that the open female ends of every strand are pointed down (you may need to zip tie them to guarentee it), all electrical connection points are off the ground (I zip tie mine to wooden stakes), I pound small PVC pipe into the gound and slip my wireframes into that so I don't have to worry about leaks from the metal into the ground (plastic serves as an insulator). In short, if you prepare your display for bad weather, you can run without any GFCI trips!!!!

Now, the burnt out controller... can't help with that!!!!

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Those people who live in the cold have given you some good answers.

You remind me why I live in southern California. Supposed to be 83 today in bright blue shine today.

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We received 9 inches of snow here on the 6th and my show ran fine with no issues. We normally do not get any snow and it was well below freezing for the next week. The only issue that has come up this year is condesation in one controller shorted out two channels but my replacement made it through the snow fine. All of the controllers were buried but off the ground as were the connections. I d not see why it would be a problem since our usual downpours of 1-2 inches in the winter does not cause problems. I would think the snow is not liquid water and when it melts I do not think it the water can get into the connections. By the way the lights looked very different underneath the snow.

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Well, in reading Oilmoney's posts, guess I can't complain about the cold!  It's in the teens and 20's here...Farenheit...above zero. 

Yes, more learning on the job.  Will definitely need more stakes, taller ones, for next season.  Hadn't thought of the female ends pointing down, though by nature most of mine do anyway...I usually leave an inch or so of cord at the end when I zip tie, so gravity dangles them down.  I tried the PVC feet for my wire frame mini trees last year and it didn't seem to work, I'll have to try again.  For now, I guess I'll just have to wait for some thawing.  There are a lot of connections buried deep in snow/ice which melted and refroze.  Kids have activities tonight and tomorrow, so I won't be home to dig. 

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It'll get worse yet! LOL. We dip below -50 deg C with the wind chill usually for at least a week every year. Usually January and February are our worst months followed by relentless snow in March to make spring come later. I'll start decorating end of September beginning of October next year just beat the snow and cold as well as do something for halloween as well.

And yet you don't park in your garage?

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I have not had any issues with ice or snow. If it should rain and then freeze as mentioned above , then I see that a s a potential problem for cfci tripping. I would do what Brian suggested and when a cfci trips do the process of elimination until you find the problem. I have had to do this when it rains. Weather in the Chicago area can change week to week. We may get some rain yet this Thursday. DARN IT!

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My corvette is in there sleeping until spring....zzzzzzzzz

 

So in the spring, it gets to a balmy what??  5 degrees?  :lol:   I have my weekend toy in the garage as well...though it's not a Corvette.  It used to be before having 3 little kids. 

 

Yes, Brians' suggestion is a great idea.  The circuit where the tripped GFI is has other non LOR controlled features plugged into it.  Some lights, a blow up, wire reindeer, etc...  So it could be one of those causing the issue as well.  Going to have to unplug all of that too and start one by one.  Good thing is that I have things grouped into "bundles", where I have several features plugged into a 6 outlet timer.  So if I dig in the snow to find the timer, I can uplug everything.

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My corvette is in there sleeping until spring....zzzzzzzzz

When we moved into the new house, the wife goes oh I can park in a garage now. Ummm nope dear that's for my El Camino, your still in the driveway lol

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