Cost

[tommanh]

I was just thinking if everything keeps going up and Im sure it will ..How will we pay for our elctricty come Halloween and christmas...???

[David Balch]

That is why I bought LED & switched all my molds over to CFL bulbs
Inflatables draw a lot of power :{
Also why I am going to animated lights, they are not on as much

My electric bill runs between $225-$300 a month all year long
"Only" an extra $300 at Christmas, not too bad at Halloween (low light)

[Anthony_In_Houston]

I dont worry about the electricity bill .... The electricity bill is the cheapest bill I will have related to decorating so I dont mind it.

Anthony

[troutlights]

David, do you have good luck with the cfl in the molds? I was concerned about the weather getting to the bulb.

Thanks, Jeff Trout:happytree:

[Chris in Ct]

I livein the last house on a cull de sac//dead end street.

I would like to hook my display up to a motion detector.

That way when there are no cars there to view th lights they don't have to be on.

I figure why have them on if no one is watching.

The only thing I'm unsure of is can a motion detector handle all the electricity.

There are a few companies on the web I need to call and see if this iseven possible.

If this does work this will reduce my electric usage considerably.

I don't get a lot of visitors so this would be ideal for all the down time. If my display starts to draw crowds as it gets bigger and hopefully known this may not be much help in reducing usage.

[hbomb341]

Chris in Ct wrote:
The only thing I'm unsure of is can a motion detector handle all the electricity.

You can use the LOR motion detector as a triger input. I have also had this same idea.

http://store.lightorama.com/motiondetector.html

Harrison

[tommanh]

Anthony_In_Houston wrote:
I dont worry about the electricity bill .... The electricity bill is the cheapest bill I will have related to decorating so I dont mind it.

Anthony


tHE WAY EVERYTHING IS GOING UP AND UP..YOU ARE LUCY AND FORTUNITE YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE ELCTRIC BILL!Times are getting tough!

I also am not doing inflatables anymore dave for the same reason and im going to use those Gf bulbs also...they ok in the weather thou??

[taybrynn]

Cool ideas ...

So does LOR software support this (show activation via. motion) ?

The only downside would be that lots of people come to the show by seeing it ... so if its off, would they still come?

I know for those of you that have been doing this for awhile ... sure they would still come ... but for a newbie ... they might just miss you alltogether ...

[hbomb341]

taybrynn wrote:
Cool ideas ...

So does LOR software support this (show activation via. motion) ?

The only downside would be that lots of people come to the show by seeing it ... so if its off, would they still come?

I know for those of you that have been doing this for awhile ... sure they would still come ... but for a newbie ... they might just miss you alltogether ...

Currently you have to use a director or Mini Director to do trigering.

Harrison

[Tony Furst]

Chris in Ct wrote:
I livein the last house on a cull de sac//dead end street.

I would like to hook my display up to a motion detector.

That way when there are no cars there to view th lights they don't have to be on.

I figure why have them on if no one is watching.

The only thing I'm unsure of is can a motion detector handle all the electricity.

There are a few companies on the web I need to call and see if this iseven possible.

If this does work this will reduce my electric usage considerably.

I don't get a lot of visitors so this would be ideal for all the down time. If my display starts to draw crowds as it gets bigger and hopefully known this may not be much help in reducing usage.

Chris,

You didn't say if your display is static or animated but if it is static you could use a motion detector but you would have to set the motion detector up to trip a relay or relayswhich in turn would turn your display on and off.

Tony

[Chris in Ct]

Tony My display is static, That why I really would like to cut down on the on time when no one around to view it.

If you or someone could explain in simple terms what i would need to do to accomplish this it would be greatly appreciated.

[David Balch]

troutlights wrote:
David, do you have good luck with the cfl in the molds? I was concerned about the weather getting to the bulb.

Thanks, Jeff Trout:happytree:

1st year for CFL was 2006 - maybe 2-3 dozen, warm winter so I was unsure of their performance in cold weather.
For 2007 I converted almost every mold over
I used NVision 9w = 40w in the smaller molds $2.87 for (4) after instant rebate
I used GE (?) 12w = 60w equiv for larger molds FREE after instant rebate!!

I did not have a single mold that did not light up
I had one CFL that broke due to wind - I use wood stakes & the wind blew the mold around. I broke one CFL bulb taking down the molds
Not one problem due to rain, not a single GFCI kicked out on any of the mold circuits
I had maybe close to 200 (or more) that I used CFL's

31w savings *200 = 6200 watts (51 AMPS!!)decrease of static display
Works for me!!

I'd love to have LED bulbs.....one day

I did have to modify the light holder - cut back the plastic black ring - to allow the CFL bulb to fit in. I have mostly new General Foam molds, so not bothered by doing that

[Tony Furst]

Chris,

I can put together a simple line diagram for you that should explain everything that you need to do. Give me a day or two and I'll get it put together.



Tony

[Chris in Ct]

Tony Furst wrote:
Chris,

I can put together a simple line diagram for you that should explain everything that you need to do. Give me a day or two and I'll get it put together.



Tony


That would be awesome. Thank you

[troutlights]

David,

thanks for the advice I am going to change to CFL. I already have some led but could notsee a lower bill thanks again

Jeff

[laser633]

Chris,

As Tony mentioned, you could use a relay triggeredby a motion detector if your display is static (not needing an LOR or similar controlller.)

How large is your display? Particularly, how many circuits do you use? There are some simple one circiut motion-activated switched circiuts available commercially. (I'd have to research to find them but you might try Newart.com). If you need to control more that one circiut and are only using the motion detector to enable your display, take alook at X10.

X10 has motion dectors and addressable recepticles. (They do not do well with "inductive loads so I don't recommend them for inflatables.)

Ed

[csmith]

Don't get too bogged down with the price of electricity. According to a Department of Energy report,kilowatt costslooks like:


16.59 New England
13.07 Mid Atlantic
11.44 Pacific
11.30 West South Central
09.96 South Atlantic
09.72 East North Central
09.44 Mountain
08.49 West North Central
08.49 East South CentralThe chart is about 18 months old but it's saying a kilowatt hour of electricity runs between about 9 and 17 cents, depending on where you live.

How can you relate to a kilowatt hour of electricity? For this discussion, lets say a kilowatt hour costs a dime.

Imagine you had a 1000 watt light bulb. Turning it on for one hour will cost a dime.

Say you had ten 100 watt light bulbs. Turn them all on at the same time and your consuming (10 times 100 equals) 1000 watts. Turn those ten bulbs on for an hour and it will cost you a dime.

If you're lucky enough to have hair (hmmmmm... notice I wear a hat for some reason) and use a blow dryer, it consumes about 1500 watts. A little quick math and you can figure out it costs about 15 cents an hour to operate.

Goto http://www.planetchristmas.com/FigurePower.htmto see how many watts typical light strings consume.

Once you get your head around electricity costs, you can start figuring out ways to consume less in your display. It's a lot easier than you think. Using the CFL (compact florescent light) bulbs where you normally use regular bulbs or spotlights will save a lot of watts. Using flashers or chasers saves money because lights are blinking and when they're off they aren't consuming electricity. Using LED technology is another obvious (but pricey) choice. If you convert your display to computer control, you determine how many or few lights are on... and you can dim them, saving even more electricity.

To put all this in perspective, I had a display one year with 250,000 lights... all computerized. I ran the lights off a dedicated power meter. The display was on 4-6 hours a night for 31 straight days. Total electric bill: <$70. I can only imagine if all the lights had been static (meaning they were all on all the time), my electric bill would easily be in the four digit range.

What does all this mean? We can build over-the-top displays AND save electricity!

[Stickybombs]

If you are worried about people missing your display, perhaps leave a portion of itlit all the time and have the rest (main power consuming items) on a motion trigger.