LED Lights question

[4hoogies]

hello,

George, where/how do you plug all of your extension cords into? Do you use interior outlets as well as exterior and garage outlets?

Being new, I only have 2 external outlets and possibly 2 from the garage. Unfortunately, HOA's only allow me to have my lights up 30 days before the holiday and 30 days after so very difficult to put lights up early and test everything. Do I need to have an electrician come out and make sure I have enough watts for my 48 channels? How do I make sure I'm not going to blow my circuit breaker by overloading it with interior and exterior.



thanks for any help you all may offer.

[George Simmons]

Before I got into LOR, we had the electrical service in this house upgraded for my static display, including a 100 amp sub-panel and twelve 20 amp circuits for outdoors. That, in addition to pre-existing 60-amp service to the garage, gives me plenty of power from which I can draw. Given the inexorable shift over to LEDs these days I'll never come close to needing all that power again. That, plus the fact that the overwhelming majority of lights in my display spend the overwhelming majority of their time off helps a lot too.

HOA's suck. You have my sympathies. But let's see - if you celebrate Thanksgiving with lights, that means you can legally have them up in late October. And if you celebrate Halloween with lights then you can have them up already. Sounds like plenty of testing time to me... just change out a few strings, say from orange/purple to reds and greens and then you're ready for Christmas.

As for how much power you need, a Kill-A-Watt meter has the answer to those and many other questions. Get one.

[Bob Wingert]

4hoogies wrote:

hello,

George, where/how do you plug all of your extension cords into? Do you use interior outlets as well as exterior and garage outlets?

Being new, I only have 2 external outlets and possibly 2 from the garage. Unfortunately, HOA's only allow me to have my lights up 30 days before the holiday and 30 days after so very difficult to put lights up early and test everything. Do I need to have an electrician come out and make sure I have enough watts for my 48 channels? How do I make sure I'm not going to blow my circuit breaker by overloading it with interior and exterior.



thanks for any help you all may offer.

Ok. I've asked these same questions and even did a test run to see just how much power. I'm going 48CH this year and 14K LED lights. When hooked all together and on at 100% it drew a total of 9amps. I had an electrician come out and install 4 20 AMP GFCI outlets in the garage for me. Looks like I won't be needing, at least this year. I was shocked just how little electric these little suckers draw. My 1st thoughts before I began was having a subpanel installed. HAHA. Not even close.

As far as your HOA goes, thats ridiculous. We have a fairly strict HOA here but there's no such nonsense about lights as to when, where and how. Even if there was, mine would be going up! I pay the bills! I pay the HOA. Screw em' :0)

[4hoogies]

Thank you both for your replies.

I agree George, I was planning on setting up both my Halloween (not near as many as Christmas) and Christmas lights together so I could do some testing with my Christmas lights and to not tick off my husband by asking him to put lights up twice. haha. (He hates getting on that ladder).



I did my all new LED lights so that should help in not blowing my circuits so thanks for that information. My only other concern was trying to be able to plug in my 3 boxes in areas that I need my lights to limit too many extension cords running all over the place. (especially since we don't get snow to cover them up.)

Do you guys stick with the thick indoor/outdoor extension cords?

thanks again for your input.

t

[George Simmons]

I stick with HD extension cords to power the controllers. But from the controllers to the lights (with only a couple exceptions - those being channels that pull close to 8 amps) I run spt1 & 2 for all the other channels.

[Bob Wingert]

I bought a ton of them last year (clearance) 16/3 cords. They are the green one's for light usage. Since I'm still way short on what I need I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do the SPT2 wire. I will load up on that stuff next year too when its on sale. I like the idea of making the cords as long/short as I need them. Cost wise its also less expensive. Being lightweight will help w/ storage this season.

[4hoogies]

Okay, that's what I just picked up at Home Depot. 16 to start with. will definitely need more but can start with these and see what lengths I need as I get things up. Just wish I could find a way to hide the green cords in my light red rocks. they're going to stand out like a sore thumb. I wonder if I could run them through some pvc?

[George Simmons]

4hoogies wrote:

Just wish I could find a way to hide the green cords in my light red rocks. they're going to stand out like a sore thumb. I wonder if I could run them through some pvc?

Yes, you'll see them during the day, but what's the issue? Red and green ARE nice Christmas colors, are they not? But when it's dark, no one will notice - especially if you've done anything better than an awful job with your sequencing. As to the PVC - don't you think that would be even MORE noticeable?

[4hoogies]

True, red and green are fine colors for this holiday. I was thinking of adding more work to my already full plate with the pvc and spray painting it to blend in and then trying to cover it as much as possible with the landscape rock. (believe me, our HOA's sometimes have little to do). too bad I like my neighborhood so well.