Electrical Needs

[Sctiger]

So I've called an electrician to come and install some new outlets to alleviate any chance of having a dark show in my first year. Even though my dad was a lineman, the knowledge of all things electrical wasn't passed down. Does anyone have suggestions on what I should have installed for the present and future growth? (Yes! There will be more controllers! My wife is chomping at the bit to get another this year!!) 

I have two Pro Series LOR1602w controllers and running all LED lights. I remodeled the house when I bought it 18 yrs ago. All I remember is that I did go with the 200 Amp service...after that my eyes glaze over. 

[htebault]

I had three new 20a circuits installed and each one has a GFI outlet. With the newer lights (RGB/LED) the current draw is low, so I don't get close to those breaker limits. It did allow me to have more convenient placement of weatherproof outlets.

[k6ccc]

You are in luck because you are running LEDs.  Unless you are running a massive number of LEDs, you will be hard pressed to exceed one 20 amp circuit.  With that said however, I would have your electrician install something like four 20 amp circuits.  Putting outlets in different locations can be very helpful.  As part of my landscaping project, I installed two double outlets on opposite ends of the yard on a 20 amp circuit.  Later in the project, I added another double outlet next to the driveway at the end of a wall.  That is on a separate 20 amp circuit, but is not really at a location useful for Christmas lighting.  Lastly I added two more 20 amp circuits at another location in the yard.  Each of those has two circuits has two double outlets.  One of those is what powers most of year round landscape lighting.  In the attic is another 20 amp circuit that feeds my pixel tree and star and the 220 GE Color Effects bulbs on the eves.

I don't need anywhere near that much power, but it is really nice having outlets all over the yard.

 

[ItsMeBobO]

22 minutes ago, htebault said:

I had three new 20a circuits installed and each one has a GFI outlet. With the newer lights (RGB/LED) the current draw is low, so I don't get close to those breaker limits. It did allow me to have more convenient placement of weatherproof outlets.

In addition to convenient placement,  spreading out your controllers on different circuits isolates an outage.  A trip due to rain wont turn off your entire show.   

[plasmadrive]

Using LEDs is definitely an advantage.  I run my whole yard off two 20amp circuits with power to spare.  In my big driveway trees I had mini incans and had to split them into two 20 amp circuits and they actually caused dimming when they went on and off.  Now I have replaced them with LEDs they entire 18,000-20,000 light all live on one breaker and draw less than 10 amps total. 

Bottom line is that Jim is correct, LEDs give you a big power advantage and you won't need that many circuits.

 

[Little_b]

I added a 60 amp panel in my garage a few years back.  I have a little background in electrical engineering, so I was able to run a few new lines from there to the corner eaves of my house and a couple in my flowerbeds (used all year for landscape lights).  This made it easier to put the controllers closer the props so I wasn't having to use quite so many extension cords. I still run mostly incandescent, but slowly switching over to LED.  I have 11 AC controllers, 4 DC and 3 Pixcon 16 controllers.  Each year I seem to add more and more lights, so having the new panel in the Garage has made it easier to expand as needed.  But having started switching over to more LED, I haven't needed to add any power this year.

[k6ccc]

Since I can easily enough, below is a satellite view of my front yard.  I will point out that when Google took this photo, we were mid process on the landscaping project which is why only half the yard has a lawn.  Actually now because of our five year drought, most of the lawn that is there is dead.  Each color arrow represents one (or for the blue, two) 20 amp circuits.    When we bought the house 25 years ago, there was no power in the front yard at all.  The green outlets were the first to go in - before LOR was planned.  The one next to the house is a double GFCI, and the other one is a standard double outlet.  When the concrete block wall was built to replace a falling apart fence between my neighbor's and my driveway, a double GFCI outlet (red arrow) was built into the walll along with a light at the end of the wall.  At this time, both are on the same 20 amp circuit as the rest of the garage, but that will change when I substantially change the main power to the house (for the electricians out there - to get rid of the Zinsco breakers and panel!).  The yellow arrow is a circuit that was added when we replaced the front window with a large bay window.  There are lights and outlets in the window, and I pulled a dedicated circuit for it.  When I added several LOR controllers in the attic right above the window, I added a quad outlet up there.  Lastly by the time I built the second brick column in the front yard, I was fully into LOR, so I pulled two 20 amp circuits into the column.  Each circuit has a GFCI double outlet plus a standard double outlet, and one of the circuits also has a double outlet that was built into the brick on the yard side of the column.  For a size reference, the brick capped white wall on the north side of the lawn is 61 feet long.

For year round, most of the landscape lighting is fed from one of the blue circuits, except the 17 roses along the north wall are fed from the yellow circuit.  For Christmas, the CCP arches plug into the green circuit next to the house, and the pixel tree, pixel star, and GECE lights on the eves all get power from the yellow circuit.  The perimeter stings and Candy Canes (next year) will come off one of the blue circuits.