Static This Year/Animated Next Year, LED's or Incandescent

[Swoop]

So I need a little input from some LOR Vets. I plan on setting up a nice static display this year with the current plan to get into LOR and Animation for next year. (It's never to early to plan right?) Anyway this is a new home and I will be purchasing a ton of lights up until Christmas as I don't have anything right now other than clear isicle lights from Lowes and a ton of 100ct mini clears.

I would like to outline the roof with clear C9's this year and then add Green and Red C9's next year when I get into animation. My question is should I go with LED C9 strings or Incandescent C9's? I know the LED's are more expensive but overtime it should be cheaper given the energy savings. Do LED C9's work good with with LOR for dimming, fading, etc? Also the C9 led strings Ive been looking at have 2 varieties of what I call clear/white. One is warm white and the other is pure white. Which one goes best with standard incandescent mini strings and isicle lights you get from Lowes, the warm white or the pure white? I was leaning towards warm white.



Thanks in advance.

[JR V]

Simple answer is NO. We too are in a new home this year so understand were your coming from. But two years ago we used over 600 c9 bulbs on our roof perimeter. Now when there there all on, ya the meter will start spinnin. But you will find that there rarely all on at the same time.

Last year we put up decorations for coffee shop that are on 24x7x365. For that we used c9 LEDs. I think they look great. So why wouldn't I use them on my own house. Two huge reasons, first there not cheap at all. Second you can not dim them.

Now if you do plan on using a lot of C9's you need to make sure you do a lot of planning. For us to do that many lights we had one controller on our roof and we used channels 1-4 (red, green, blue, white) and 9-12 (red, green, blue, white) just for the C9s. With both sides of the controller running on a 20 fuse and circuit. By splitting them up like that it allowed me to make sure both circuits were balanced out. Also it made it so that all the lights could be on at the same time. Remember you got to make sure you don't overload the controller (20 amp max per side) but you also have to make sure you stay under the 8 amp max per channel.

[ledlighting]

Greetings All! I wanted to chime in on this topic. You can Dim the C9/C7/C6/G12/M5 Stringers. What you currnetly cannot Dim are the replacement bulbs.

All the features with LOR work with all the LED Stringers we carry.

Swoop to answer your quesiton on color, the warm white is what emulates most to the incandescent clear. The Cool/Pure white has a blue hue to it and a lot of people describe it as an "ice" look.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Travis Fremming
http://www.ledholidaylighting.com

[JR V]

Thanks for that info about the stringers. Didnt know that. Ya we used the replacement bulbs on the coffee shop.

[Rick Hughes]

Tossing in my two cents.

I'm standing firmly in the incandescent camp. I find when the LED lights go off, they're off immediately ... versus the incandescents which have that very brief trailing glow. Watch taillights on cars to see the difference ...

I do three houses in a row and it's all C7s, though I am toying with the notion of introducing modified mini-trees this year as an enhancement.

Question ... do you really need to go with C9s? Would C7s work ... you'll get a similar effect but save watts and initial cost.




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[JeffF]

Also tossing my non-LED cents in. I think it's mostly a personal opinion but the wifey and I both agree(yep, there is actually something) that LEDs just look strange to us. We can instantly spot them from a block away when we are cruising around. I like the "slow" glow of incandescents... and the fact that you can pick them up for $0.50 to $0.75 per 100ct at the big chain stores during Christmas clearance sales. :cool:

[Dr. Jones]

Rick

How are the c-7's in your picture in the ground? What are you using?

Thanks

[Rick Hughes]

Thanks for asking. Several factors led to my current design which I'm quite pleased with and have been using for several years.

Foremost is that I am incredibly compulsive about lights being aligned and spaced very precisely. Plus I needed a means which allowed me to get everything in the display, across the three houses, completed in a single weekend. And a very easy way to store everything.

I'm using 1x4's and the lights are spaced 3-1/2" apart. Each unit has eight strands so I can either do multi-colored or clear; each with four strands for effective chases. The strands are stapled on, with a cable tie between each pair of bulbs to keep the cords tight. I use the same scheme for everything.

Depending on the piece, some have a 3" wooden block attached to the front of the 1x4 so they can rest, bulbs pointed down, underneath my garage cabinets

The longest pieces I have on the ground are just short of 16' - two 8' sections with a hinge.

For pieces on the house, like around the front door and windows (not shown in the picture I posted above), I added green branched garland down the center to hide the cords. This year I'll be added some red berries or poinsettias to give a bit more color.

I think that covers everything. If it's unclear, ask.


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[Fred]

Swoop, I just went through making this decision. Here's what swayed me: I added up the current draw of all the lights I wanted to add to my display and discovered that I'd have to add a sub-panel to power incandescents. Given the cost of hiring an electrician, I decided to buy the expensive LEDs instead. (And, I can add a bazillion of them in the future and still not need additional power.)

It's a tough decision.

[JBullard]

Since you are just starting out, there is nothing wrong with combining the two types. Adding quality LEDs as funds permit.

When my preorder of LED's arrive from Paul this year, my display will be approx 80% LED for 2008.

I'm using 256 Channels of LOR.

All of the new wireframes I'm building this year are 100% LED and I will be converting all of my older wireframes to LED as time and supplies permit.

Put me in the go LED camp. One personal observation, try to buy a quality FULL WAVE and SEALED BULBS strings, IMO, well worth the initial higher cost.

[zman]

OK, let me toss my dos centavos in here. LEDs vs incandecants. You either like the look of LEDs or not. There are not many that sit on that fence. LEDs are more expensive no doubt, but the green footprint is reduced. LEDs are getting more "warm" especially the whites, but the brilliance of the other colors is great IMHO.

That has been a big issue and discussed a lot. Incandecsants are more traditional, cheaper overall to buy, but costly in terms of amperage. You don't get into LEDs for the reduced electric bill, you get into them to get more lights per circuit on your current panel.

You definitely CAN dim LEDs, they do have a threshold where they shut off, unlike regular bulbs. But that threshold is around 10%, so your not losing much there at all. Stay away from half wave, LEDs you will notice a flicker, and stay WITH the sealed units. All the problems with LEDs, corrosion, dimming, short life, come from the replacable units. John hit this point pretty well.

Stay away from the Costco LEDs. I have not had good success with them, and think they are the Holiday Creations brand. I have returned a whole slew of them, and there maybe more this year.

Combining the 2 is perfectly fine. I have wireframes that are regular minis and new ones being built that will be like John's, all LED. My icicles are still incandecsant. The cost of the LED versions is still too high for me, and I can put my LEDs elsewhere in my display. In 2008 I will be about 80% LED.

Keep asking questions.

[JR V]

zman wrote:

.............LEDs are more expensive no doubt, but the green footprint is reduced.......................

You can see what side of this state all the tree huggers live on. LOL Just kiddin.

[George Simmons]

Count my vote with the pro-LED contingent. Personally, I love the brilliant colors. I don't know how long it will take for them to fade, but I started using LED's when they first hit the market and I've seen no sign of fading yet - which isn't something I've ever been able to say about ANY incandescents.

Then, there's the issue of kilowatt hours. I've got 140 amps at my disposal outdoors and had, for all practical purposes, reached that limit. Since I began replacing with LED's I've been adding lights each year and the electric bill has been going down annually. I'm not used to that particular law of physics yet, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it, that's for sure. Plus, it helped make the cost of jumping into 128 channels this year easier to sell to my honey.

George

[Swoop]

Rick Hughes wrote:

Tossing in my two cents.

I'm standing firmly in the incandescent camp. I find when the LED lights go off, they're off immediately ... versus the incandescents which have that very brief trailing glow. Watch taillights on cars to see the difference ...

I do three houses in a row and it's all C7s, though I am toying with the notion of introducing modified mini-trees this year as an enhancement.

Question ... do you really need to go with C9s? Would C7s work ... you'll get a similar effect but save watts and initial cost.

My house sits approx 150 yards, yes as in 450ft from the road, so I was leaning towards C9's because of the distance. More light. Anyway after reading everyone's comments and hashing it out in my head and on paper, I'll def. be going with the Commercial C9 LED strings from Travis at ledholidaylighting.com. While the initial cost is more, I just can't pass up the savings in electrical cost, 2.4 watts or so for a 25 count LED string versus 250 watts for a 25 light incand. string with 10 watt bulbs. Also given that my future plans involve not just clear C9's but red and green as well and as it stands right now im looking at 350ft of clear C9's for the roof outline, then adding the same length in red and green next season, incandescents will just eat up what limited LOR channels I will have.





As you can see it's a long way to the road. And I don't mean the dirt road, that's my driveway. There's an asphalt county road out there parrallel to the tree line.





Even if I had decided to go with the C9 incadescents electric wouldn't have been a problem. 400 amps, yay.


Overhead shot of house. No the white stuff isn't snow, hehe, it's dirt, but it's all grass now. Yay.





As you can see I have alot of roof to outline (350 linear feet). Though the picture makes it not look like alot.

Anyway thanks to everyone that threw their thoughts in. Def the kind of feedback I was looking for.