toddmoon Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 As my Christmas display has grown over the years and so has my power bill. I now have over 15 inflatables displays over 20 static displays and 10,000 lights.I have been working on replacing my lights with LEDs and plan to use more this year. In an effort to help reduce my power bill I am only going to use two of my inflatable's during the Thanksgiving to New years run. I may put the rest of my inflatables out the week of Christmas and only run them over the Christmas weekend.Having the controllers run the lights helps out too. However my biggest draw on power for my display is the motors for the inflatable's. As I continue evolve my display I am going to move away from high power consumption items.Does anyone else have ideas or suggestions on power saving tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 The only static elements I run are the LED lights around the windows, as a dim security lighting after the show... Having everything else animated helps keep the costs down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Amen to KLB's comments. In years past my electric bill from Thanksgiving to New Year's eve would run anywhere between 300 - 500 dollars. Last year, my first synchronized year, it was well under 50 bucks. Of course, when you factor in the cost of controllers, ext cords, etc, I'll probably never save enough to break even, but it sure is fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denny Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I only have four inflatables and they are not inflated for most of the show. I control the blowers with X10, inflating them about five minutes before they appear in the show. The inflatable lights are controlled separately by LOR. As for LOR, it is the biggest energy saver in the whole show. Hate to think what my power bill would be if it weren't for LOR.I have a mixture of LEDs and incandescent, about 80,000 to 100,000 lights, depending what I do from year to year. Another big saver for me was switching from incandescent floods to Wirekat's LED MR16 floods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddmoon Posted October 10, 2009 Author Share Posted October 10, 2009 I agree with moving to the LEDs. I just keep adding more elements to my show each year. I have been working on a large house face that I am trying to combine both element of Halloween and Christmas. I have the Halloween face going now and I now have been studying your house face trying to decide what elements I can incorporate into my existing house face. It has been a lot of work and a very educational process.Your videos have been very inspiring to me and make me want to do more with mine. Thanks for sharing! Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Looks good Todd. I'm looking forward to seeing some video of your work in action. Hey - sharing is what this place is all about...George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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