# christmas lights



## tuffy (Nov 25, 2017)

how many of you all decorate out side with Christmas lights and stuff? do you think it raises your electric  bill much ?


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## havasu (Nov 25, 2017)

Not since I converted all my lights to LED. I can run all lights (14 sets) on one outlet, and don't notice any jump with my electric bill.


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## Chris (Nov 27, 2017)

Same here, went with LED and I don't notice


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## mudmixer (Nov 27, 2017)

Scrooge/Tuffy -

So when does the cost of electricity have an effect on the decision made once a year?

Dick


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## bud16415 (Nov 28, 2017)

We do Christmas lights and if keeping 400 gallons of water heated to 103 year round outside doesn&#8217;t break the bank a few 100 tiny light bulbs wont. The hot tub costs about a dollar a day and the lights about 1 cent.


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## HandyOne (Nov 28, 2017)

Just use a couple of strings of white Christmas lights all year on the shrubs beside my walk way for a low light way to see when I get home.  They are LED's.


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## Chris (Nov 28, 2017)

mudmixer said:


> Scrooge/Tuffy -
> 
> So when does the cost of electricity have an effectn the decision made once a year?
> 
> Dick



If you lived in California and had to pay their rates.


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## tuffy (Nov 28, 2017)

mudmixer said:


> Scrooge/Tuffy -
> 
> So when does the cost of electricity have an effectn the decision made once a year?
> 
> Dick


It's not me it's the wife wont let lights go up because of  the cost I was simply trying to show here that it doesn't run your light bill up.


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## havasu (Nov 29, 2017)

I bet you don't have to follow your old lady around the house shutting down lights like I have to do?


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## bud16415 (Nov 30, 2017)

tuffy said:


> It's not me it's the wife wont let lights go up because of  the cost I was simply trying to show here that it doesn't run your light bill up.



Oh the solution to this is easy, and DIY related in fact. Get two 10 lengths of pipe and bury them 3 in the ground about 40 apart out in the back yard. Then tie a small rope between them. After that go in the house and remove the fuses to the cloths dryer. Sit back and wait. When she tells you the dryer doesnt work you just tell her you installed a solar powered dryer and it will save so much electricity.


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## tuffy (Dec 1, 2017)

bud16415 said:


> Oh the solution to this is easy, and DIY related in fact. Get two 10 lengths of pipe and bury them 3 in the ground about 40 apart out in the back yard. Then tie a small rope between them. After that go in the house and remove the fuses to the cloths dryer. Sit back and wait. When she tells you the dryer doesnt work you just tell her you installed a solar powered dryer and it will save so much electricity.


LOL I've all ready have one of those , just need to switch the breaker off.


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## bud16415 (Dec 1, 2017)

tuffy said:


> LOL I've all ready have one of those , just need to switch the breaker off.



There you go. Now that you have a plan we expect to see you next year on that TV show Great Christmas Light Fight. 

Here is one for inspiration.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnL0_CsXncI[/ame]


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## tuffy (Dec 2, 2017)

Well got the wife talked into putting up the Christmas lights and inflatables, mainly for the grandkids but the Grinch still isn't happy with it!!!!!!!


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## mudmixer (Dec 10, 2017)

tuffy -

The answer is "BAH HUMBUG!!"

When the kids like it and the neighbors do not complain, the warm feeling when you drive home is a big factor.

Neighbors may complain about the light and traffic and glare, but they may either turn off all lights or add some for the next year.

Grand kids have a strong voice until you ask them to help stringing and untangling everything during the installation "AND" the stripping/packing and storage. - get them involved!!

Dick


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## Flyover (Dec 11, 2017)

I've got a few neighbors who go in for the "Christmas Vacation" lightshow. It doesn't bother me but I wouldn't want it on my house/lawn. It would make me annoyed driving home to that!

I like my Christmas decorations to be discovered, not announced. You walk up to my front door, and in the little side window by the door you can see across the hallway and into the living room, where we have a nice brightly lit tree. From the right angle you can see it from across the street---it just doesn't reach out and grab you by the throat.


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## tuffy (Dec 12, 2017)

We have about 7 inflatables .And whole house done in lights.


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## pjones (Dec 31, 2018)

tuffy said:


> It's not me it's the wife wont let lights go up because of  the cost I was simply trying to show here that it doesn't run your light bill up.



Did you ever get the OK to run the lights?

This is the setup that I made back in 2016. I built the controllers and transmitters, I used over 2000 feet extension cord, and ran out of time to make all the lights straight. It's not bad for a first years go at it but nowhere in comparison to those who you usually see on YouTube. Everybody starts somewhere though and as I found out, when you want to build it yourself, there are a lot of bugs that need to get ironed out before it works well. I fixed it up a bunch more in 2017 but never did take a video, 2028 they are up but operating mostly static because time fell short with other priorities (new daughter was born)

The electricity jumps about $100, but that's with running over 1200watts all day and night, broadcasting radio, and running a show computer. If I stuck to using only LED then I wouldn't ever notice it in the electric bill.


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## tuffy (Dec 31, 2018)

Yes I did get the ok. We also did it again this year.


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## bud16415 (Jan 2, 2019)

I didn’t even get a picture of the flood lights on the front of the house with the new porch rails. We haven’t had any snow. New years eve at midnight it was 55 degrees out and we were standing bare foot on the deck watching the kids play in the hot tub set to 100. Normally we have snow up to our waist by now.


The lights just don’t look right without the snow.


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## Eddie_T (Jan 2, 2019)

Flyover said:


> I like my Christmas decorations to be discovered, not announced. You walk up to my front door, and in the little side window by the door you cIome an see across the hallway and into the living room, where we have a nice brightly lit tree. From the right angle you can see it from across the street---it just doesn't reach out and grab you by the throat.


I like the subtle approach, to me it conveys a warm home feeling (with a touch of nostalgia) that bright lights don't achieve .


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## Flyover (Jan 2, 2019)

That was a year ago. My new opinion is that I don't like Christmas lights. They're a huge waste of energy, especially since everyone stays inside glued to their phones anyway. Bah humbug.


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## pjones (Jan 3, 2019)

Flyover said:


> That was a year ago. My new opinion is that I don't like Christmas lights. They're a huge waste of energy, especially since everyone stays inside glued to their phones anyway. Bah humbug.



Lol, I think part of the goal is to create an event where families can get together and go outside to look at all the pretty lights, give them a reason to go outside, create memories, and become active at such a sediment time of year. 

I also like that they make my drive home from work much prettier and interesting than the usual daily grind, also my now 5 year old daughter gets super excited to see all the pretty lights around our neighborhood and the joy that she has when we put up our lights is hard to say no to.

I'm always happy when I see new people put up lights where previously there were none. It may not be the most energy/environmentally efficient thing to do (specially in coal produced areas) but with the new LED strings it is such a reduction from prior usage that it's much less of a concern now to the point where falling asleep with the TV on, once or twice, may use more energy than those lights. With it getting so dark so early I think a lot more people would feel the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder without them... So technically speaking, it might actually be healthier to have them


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## Flyover (Jan 4, 2019)

@pjones: I "liked" your comment because I basically don't strongly disagree with any of it (except that last part about S.A.D. -- highly speculative!) ...but still I say BAH HUMBUG. Glad "the Holidays" are finally over.

Scholars seem to agree Jesus was probably born in July. The whole Santa Claus/decorated conifer trees thing is adapted from pre-Christian Germanic lore. If we need a cozy twinkly wintertime solstice holiday I think we could make up a better one that doesn't waste so many resources and isn't so easy for commercialization to pervert/ruin. The best part of Christmas is how charitable people become, so what if there was a winter holiday that was purely about that?

Besides that, what I'd like to see is a holiday where people try to use as little gas/electricity as they can for some period of time. And minimize light pollution too -- that way during the holiday people could go outside at night and look up and see the Milky Way.


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## pjones (Jan 4, 2019)

Flyover said:


> @pjones: I "liked" your comment because I basically don't strongly disagree with any of it (except that last part about S.A.D. -- highly speculative!) ...but still I say BAH HUMBUG. Glad "the Holidays" are finally over.
> 
> Scholars seem to agree Jesus was probably born in July. The whole Santa Claus/decorated conifer trees thing is adapted from pre-Christian Germanic lore. If we need a cozy twinkly wintertime solstice holiday I think we could make up a better one that doesn't waste so many resources and isn't so easy for commercialization to pervert/ruin. The best part of Christmas is how charitable people become, so what if there was a winter holiday that was purely about that?
> 
> Besides that, what I'd like to see is a holiday where people try to use as little gas/electricity as they can for some period of time. And minimize light pollution too -- that way during the holiday people could go outside at night and look up and see the Milky Way.



I couldn't agree with you more. Christmas has always bothered me with how commercial it is and I would be super excited if it changed into something different. I'm not a strongly religious follower so I'm not set on its religious attributes but rather the good will and family social activities that come along with it. It's such a happy time of year at such a dreary time of the season (sorry Australia, we need it to be at this time of year over here, but since you get all the cool animals were taking this one!) There are many others who do follow it for the religious reasons though so there may be some opposition with making this change. :/

In Canada there is a guy named Chris who once decorated his pet moose with energy efficient LED lights and biodegradable tinsel and ornaments, then he walked through the city with his moose  so together they could pull cars out of the snow as an act of charity, while singing hockey songs. The mooses name was Jessy, but with the locals accent it was pronounced more like "Jay-Cee". Perhaps we could base the new holiday on him instead. But since most of us don't have pet moose perhaps we could decorate up our houses, and maybe use something that simulates antlers inside to pay recognition to the moose, something biodegradable but that also makes the house smell nicer... We could call this new holiday "Chrismoose"... 

Maybe the S.A.D. Thing is a stretch for the people out there but I'de like to believe I'm doing somehow for the raccoon that lives in my hedge at night. Maybe it's saving them from depression... Or at the vary least from tipping on all the branches in there. I can't even pull out a pop can from in there without getting all tangled up and scraped!

Disclaimer: The validity of Chris may or may not be entirely fictional, the fact checkers are still working on this one.


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