Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

I am so ashamed of me as an electrician to say


Max-Paul

Recommended Posts

I broke down and at last bought a "Kill-a-watt" meter. And took some reading after 3 seasons of LOR shows.

Well all I can say is that I am running about 98% LED and had a gut feeling I was in the clear. So, here is what some of my current draws are. And mind you, I dont usually have everything lit at once.

5.07 Amps for my 8 Target snow flakes & RBGW icicles, 9 strings each & RBGW C9 strings, 85 each, all LED.
About 2.4 Amps for 4-70ct string mulit, 2 blow mold candles with 60w lamps & 80' of LED rope lights & 2 xenon Strobes & 4' angle w/horn (about 250 LED strings) 140 more LEDs (all LEDs are M5 strings) & another 200 LEDs
Have 4 arches of 8 segments each. Each segment is 70ct M5 LEDs. Each arch is abt .4 amps.
At this time I have 24 ican candy canes & 8-70ct multi LED strings drawing 2.25 Amps. Will convert the candy canes this summer over to LED lamps and drop the current draw down to maybe .5 Amps.

The above is the highlights of current draw on certain items. All told with all turned on at the same time. I am drawing only 11 amps. In total I have 7 PC type controllers and one DC type controller. All off of one outlet and one plug.

I do love LEDs and how you can load up one outlet. Dont have to install more outlets or sub panel. And only have the electric bill go up a few dollars for the 5 weeks of running

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul, Great job on keeping the bill low. I did get my bill the other day and with 150,000 minis running and 21 lor boxes it was 119.00 This included the service at 18 bucks. I have 20 outlets pumping 30 amps on each breaker if needed. I do have times in the show I hit over 200 amps for a second or two and I only have a 200 amp main. One day I may switch but it would cost me to much at this time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I picked up one too and its a great addition to the tool box. No question that LEDs are a game/Load changer for lighting! THough, I still like the dim curve for incans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am running about 50,000 lights on 20 controllers. I am 98% LED. My total amp draw with everything on is a full 16 amps. At the beginning of the season I ran all controllers to one point and put the good old watt o meter on and was I smiling !!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I looked at picking up a Kill A Watt meter but there are so many of them, what is the one most of you use, I think it would be a nice tool to have in the toolbox as well.

It looks like maybe the P4400 is the most common one?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Traffficman,

When I started a few years ago. I only had maybe 6 strings of icans. I decided to bite the bullet right off of the back and trashed those old icans and invest in LED and I would just grow at the rate that I could afford the LED strings.

Denise, ya! Aint it great to run the whole show off of one outlet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TitanBry77 wrote:

I looked at picking up a Kill A Watt meter but there are so many of them, what is the one most of you use, I think it would be a nice tool to have in the toolbox as well.

It looks like maybe the P4400 is the most common one?

That's the Model I use!

Attached files 298488=16470-Killawatt.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Understand Paul. Now I am in to deep to start and wife would kill me if I tried to change now. If I ever drop back and start over it would be a little at a time. Now if the LEDS come down in price I may start the switch over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was my first year. I had nothing but about 10 strings of various multi strings and some icicles.
So I started with nothing. I dove in head first and bought all LEDs. It was extremely expensive, but the bulk stuff is over. Now it's just a matter of adding.

It was well worth the money. Denise is my hero. 50K lights on 2 outlets. I would have never thought it was possible. I bought some 3-way cords this morning at HD. That's going to save me money by not adding any more outlets.

Using the money to swipe up some lights at Sears, thanks to William's links on FB.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Understand David.. All mine are buried homerun cables back to one box where I have all the outlets. Then I have a few outlets off the house and shed. It would be real hard for me to even thinbk about layout of the yard and leds at this time. I am neck deep !! LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trafficman,

Just for the discussion. I understand your situation, but would like to throw out some food for thought if not for you, maybe others. I have an outlet on right side of house. From it I run a 15' 12ga cord to first box, which is my only DC board at this time. I made a multi tap jumpper off of the 24VDC P.S. that the main cable connects to. From this I have two 16ga SPT cords running off to some controllers. Wire 1 goes to #2, #1, & #7. What I have done is that these are PC type controllers that need a jumper installed between the two sides. Well all of the following are shielded Quick Connects. A male to a female to a female to a male. Then I make a second jumper just like the first but this one uses white wire while the first uses black wire. Ok, so the two females go to the board and the males are for the SPT jumper wires between the boards. All power is daisy chained just like the communication wires are. The other wire leaving the first box goes out to #5, #6, #0A, & #0B. I was getting a little worried that I might have to much current on just one 16ga wire. Which was proven out in my earlier post this thread.

Saves a lot wire, but one has to KNOW what their current needs are so that they do not over heat a wire and start a fire. Using extension wires to each controller is safer, but cost more and takes up more storage space. So, what I do is not for everybody.

I had a good idea what I was doing. But felt that I was getting to the point that I might run into problems next year so I got the meter and checked it out at the end of this season to prepare for next year.

A Kill-a-watt is what Griswald needed for sure. thinking about it. I bet the dad in the "Christmas Story" could have used too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the ideas Paul. I know just enough to use the twisted pair cable 12 or 14 ga as a extention cord. All this cable was free when I started with LOR. I have not kicked any breakers yet but my comms are having problems because I buried it in the same trench. Lessons learned .. LOL.. I bought used lights at first for 25 cent a string and had over 1300 bucks worth of lights stolen in one night. Now I have deer cameras installed all over the yard. I only have power buried to my mega tree and that worries me each year when I call in the electrician, He tells me we are good so I use a 5 gallon bucket over the controller and drilled a hole on the bottom lip and drive a steel rod 8 foot in the ground. This holds the bucket in place. With 150k of lights and another 100k setting the shed (all new)I am kind of stuck. Its a good show and nothing around me for 100 miles. Richard Holdman's show in Tallahassee is the closest.. And what a show!!!:cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pikadroo wrote:

I think I broke my kill-a-watt by running 20 amps thru it. It starts beeping anything over 15 amps so now when you plug it in it always shows a .20 amp draw and doesn't really accurately read LED strings. I think I toasted it. =(

Drew

Buy a new one. Ya' can't do this without it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Running everything to one outlet was just something I had to try to say I did it. I have since shortened the length of my power cords to other outlets. I decided when I started in this insane hobby that the money was either going to my power service or into the LED lights. I think the money I have saved by not having to up my service and the monthly savings has paid back by the extra cost of the lights. The longer life of the LED's is just icing on the cake !! Plans for 2012 will surely mean two outlets.... 20 amps alone for the lighting truss with spots and snow machines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know, when we talk about using LEDs and the power savings and not having to spend money on sub-panels and so many outlets to plug in controllers on outlets that are on different breakers. One other thing led me to going to LEDs. And that is the maintenance, or should I say the lack of maintenance. How many of you ican users have had to go out and replace light bulbs cause they have burnt out. And if you have had enough of them little buggers burn out dont sections of strings go dark?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new law on incans meeting a federal standard for efficiency went in to effect Jan 1. A friend of mine who manages a Hobby Lobby store said incan Christmas lights were going up about 25% this year because of it. That should effect the cost difference between LED and incans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to throw pebbles in the pond but as awesome as it would be to save money on power consumption and infrastructure costs using LEDs I just don't care for the look of them yet. I've thought about how great it would be to not worry about that stuff anymore but I just can't warm up to the lights that never get warm.
I guess I'm old fashioned at 31 :shock:

Now if my wife said I could take the money I save from using LEDs and apply it to more controllers.........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mark h2o wrote:

Not to throw pebbles in the pond but as awesome as it would be to save money on power consumption and infrastructure costs using LEDs I just don't care for the look of them yet. I've thought about how great it would be to not worry about that stuff anymore but I just can't warm up to the lights that never get warm.
I guess I'm old fashioned at 31 :shock:

Now if my wife said I could take the money I save from using LEDs and apply it to more controllers.........


I just can't see paying the price for decent quality LEDs. If I can continue to get minis for about a buck at the after Christmas sales, and LEDs continue to be $10 and up, there is no way I could justify (monetarily) making the switch. The amount of money I'd save on electricity per year would buy about 5 strings of LEDs... so at that rate it would take me 60 years to offset the price difference with electricity savings.

Now, if you really like the look of LEDs, that's one thing. Go ahead an get them and have a ball. I am not crazy about how they look. Reds and Greens are nice, but the whites are just not quite right. And the blue is just plain "ewww".

To each each his own, but don't think you're going to save a bunch of money by buying LEDs. You might save some kilowatts, you might save the planet, and you might even save your conscience, but you will not save money.*

D.T.

*If you have to upgrade your service, all bets are off, but my display of 44000+lights worked fine on my existing 200 amp service.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never seen energy savings as the justification for LEDs, rather, it is power consumption, and the ability to handle a 100% incan load with the service one has, without having to add another/larger service, or more circuits. A distant second, it seems, would be controller count, though most people are hitting the limit on overall power consumption before they hit the wall on per channel loading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...