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| - FAQ - |
Q: Why?
A: Uhh...Good question! What started out as two wrapped Magnolia trees in 1995 has grown every year since. It began to get
serious when Dave noticed icicles in a high-end catalog in 1996. After doing some quick math, and determining that it would cost
over $2000.00 to buy the needed amount from the catalog, Dave said "I can make these myself!". He created a prototype,
received approval from the "Tacky Committee" (see below) and started production. After that it became a case of "Hey Dave!
What are you going to do next year??".
The bottom line is: We enjoy doing it for the community. We receive great emails from people, some of which can make a person a
little misty... Check out the Sparks page for artwork that used our display as inspiration. Sneaking outside and mingling with the
crowd gives us inspiration (and sometimes constructive criticism). There is no better feeling than hearing a hard to impress 8 year
old say "Whoa!!". And finally, we do it for the food drive which raises over $25,000 each year to help feed the hungry in the South
Bay.
Q: What is the "Tacky Committee"?
A: The overall goal of our display is to be tasteful. Whenever Dave or Andy comes up with an idea, it has to be approved by the
"Tacky Committee". The "Tacky Committee" is comprised of two members (our wives). It is their job to determine if the idea for the
new addition will be tacky or tasteful. Sometimes, a prototype of the idea has to be constructed to demonstrate the idea. Other
times, we get an immediate "thumbs down". So far, the "Tacky Committee" has done an admirable job of keeping us in line (except
for the year that I snuck in a fog machine... And then there was the laser...).
Q: How many lights?
A: Over 60,000 for 2007. This is the most ever, but we never turn all the lights on at the same time. Our bushes are layered with
multi's, reds, blues, and greens. We never turn on all four at once. A breakdown can be found on the Statistics page.
Q: What is the electricity bill?
A: Each house is pulling approx. 100 amps when the all the elements of the display are on. But since we are now using digital
control, our bill is quite a bit less because all of the lights are not on all of the time. We also put the display in "power saving mode
from 10-11 pm on weekdays. Our guess is that it adds about $200-300 to Andy's bill..... But now Dave's house is solar powered
with a PV system that is sized to break-even over the year with the Christmas Display included! We ended up with a $35 surplus of
electricity after our 1 year "true-up" date in August, so we can now say that the Severns half is 100% solar powered! More info on
our Solar Site.
2007 - It turns out our "Power Saving" mode from previous years was actually using more power than the normal playlist because
the lights were on all the time (minus icicles, etc.) We have a new "Power Saving" mode this year that we think looks better and
should use less power. All LOR controlled lights slowly ramp and fade giving the display a constant color changing effect.
Q: How do you control the lights with the music?
A: The display uses a 800 mhz PC (2007 will be the last year for that relic) with two 48 channel digital output cards installed in it.
With a piece of software called Light-O-Rama, we can play a song (mp3 or wav format) and click the mouse when we want the
lights to do something. Once we have it the way we like it, we save the data to the disk and we can play the song and the lights
through LOR. It takes about 2 hours to program a simple song. It can be over 20 hours to program a complex one. In order for
LOR to control the lights, we ran over 1,500 feet of CAT 5 network cable from the PC to the different light elements. The cable
connects to control boxes which house Solid State Relays (SSRs) that switches the power to the lights. In addition to the SRRs, we
have special LOR controllers on our street lights, Rudolf 2.0, the lawn animals, the magnolia trees, and the Mega Tree that allow us
to dim, fade, shimmer, and ramp the lights. See where we are going with this? Eventually the whole display will converted to LOR
controllers. When we have time, we buy them in kit form and assemble them in the off season. If we are rushed, we pay more, but
get a fully assembled controller. In 2007, we bought eight sixteen channel LOR kits and assembled them in the off season. This
allowed us to LORify our icicles, and add all the multicolored layers of red, blue and green to the bushes and the Mag trees. The
new American Flag also has 15 channels now, so that took one controller right there. We also bought an extra to be used as a
spare.
Q: What do you do with burned out strings?
A: We fix them! We NEVER discard a string because of a failure. People say, "Yeah, but they only cost $3.00 per string!". We say,
"It's not the money, it's the principal!". The only time we sacrifice a string is when we run out of spare replacement bulbs. Over the
years, Dave has developed special tools and techniques for debugging and repairing strings. In 2004 we bought the "Blue Box"
which we immediately renamed to "Kelsey Jr.". This box costs $125 in the off season and $200 during the holiday season. It only
works with miniature light strings that have 50 bulbs in series (this covers most string types). You plug in a string, hit the big red
button and 75% of the time, the segment comes back to life (except for the dead bulb(s) which are then easy to spot) The other
25% of the time, pressing the red button will cause a electrical arc where the short is and you can zero in on the sound to find the
dead bulb. Since we are not sure how it works, we are going with obvious answer: MAGIC!!! Naturally I had to open it up and
there is some pretty strange stuff in there. But I digress. Kelsey Jr. has saved us hundreds of hours and a lot of frustration. See
the links page for the website that we bought it from. We do occasionally throw out colored strings because the paint has faded or
chipped. On hand made items like the globes, we paint the bulbs with stained glass paint when they get ratty looking.
Q: How do you turn out the street lights?
A: We trick them! We used to place a cup with a 4 watt night-light bulb over the light sensor on the top of the streetlight. This
bulb would go on when our display turned on. The light from the night-light bulb tricked the sensor into thinking it was daylight,
and the street light would shut off. When our display turned off at night, the night-light bulb would go out and the street light
would turn back on. We now use super-bright yellow LEDs to do this job.
2004 - We are now up to three wrapped street lights with our first franchised light at Ray Turner's house around the corner.
2007 - Another LOR display in Sunnyvale has demonstrated the feasibility of turning off the streetlights with a laser. Since we have
to go up anyway to wrap the streelights, the LED still works fine. Also to hit Andy's sensor with a laser would require help from
neighbors down the street.
Q: How do you get the cup/LED on top of the street light?
A: We have used various techniques. The first year, we made a giant fishing pole out of swimming pool brush poles and lowered
the cup on a hook over the sensor and released it. This was a very difficult task which took 3 people. In 1999 and 2000, we used
an 8 ft. diameter helium balloon to lift the cup. It still took 3 people, but it was a lot easier on the arms and there was less yelling.
In 2001 we broke down and rented a lift. You can see the LED on the streetlight sensors on our Behind the Scenes page.
Q: What does the city have to say about your messing around with the street lights?
For about 6 years, they had no idea because our philosophy is that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. That lasted
up until Dec. 2005 when the city was "informed" of our shenanigans..... They initially sent someone out during the day with a lift
who went up and took a look to see how we were doing it. Andy spoke to him and he agreed that we weren't causing any harm to
the street lights and our 200 amps of Christmas lights would probably light up the street better than their two street lights, but he
needed to clear it with his Supervisor. Then another guy came by at 5:00 am to ensure that the street lights were coming on after
the display turned off. Finally, a third guy showed up with his kids and watched while the display was running. I spoke to that guy,
and he gave us the "all-clear". So the answer is: They heard, they came, they saw, they approved.
Q: What do the Police and Fire Departments think of your display?
2001 - Sharon, Andy, Diane and I were out front chatting when a Sunnyvale fire truck drove slowly down the street and stopped in
front of our houses. The Fireman in the passenger seat yells out the window to us: "Hey, is this your display?" I say: "yes......". He
sticks his finger out the window and gives me one of those come here motions with a stern look on his face. I walk over feeling like
a little kid, having to look up at the Fireman in his BIG truck. When I get there he says: "I just wanted to let you know......(big
pause)...... that the Sunnyvale Police and Fire Departments think that this is the best display in the city."
2005 - I went outside and noticed three police cars out front, all strategically placed for looking at the display. I went up to one of
them, told him who I was, and asked if there was a problem. The Officer said: "THIS IS AWESOME!!!". He told me that they had
heard about the display a while ago, and this was their first slow night of the season, so they were finally able to come and see it.
2007 - A Sunnyvale HAZMAT truck drove down the street and honked and waved at us while we were working. The big question is:
What was the HAZMAT truck doing on our street?
Q: How many hours does it take to complete the Display?
A: We have no idea. A lot. We are kind of scared to keep track. In 2002, Dave started working on the new computer controls in
March. He put in a few hours a week up until "crunch time" (when the Xmas stuff shows up at OSH). At this point we start pulling
stuff out of storage and begin checking lights (it's amazing how many burn out from Jan. - Nov.) After Halloween, we start doing
things outside. Power and computer lines are run, and bushes and trees are wrapped. Also, during this time, Dave is programming
the new songs. The real work starts on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving when the hydraulic lift arrives. We then go solid
until we are done. Thanksgiving night is the first test of the major stuff. Friday night is the "dress rehearsal" and Saturday night is
Opening Night. Some data points: Each magnolia tree takes about 8 hours. The rear tree takes about 4 hours. Putting up the
icicles is 2-3 hours per house. Laying all the power and low voltage control lines (including water-proofing and debugging) takes
about 15 hours. Wrapping a streetlight is a two man job minimum (three is better) and that takes about 1 hour per light. Repairing
and hanging the garland lights in Andy's birch trees takes about 3 hours.
Actually, we start working in March. That's when we start throwing ideas around. We schedule a Tacky Committee meeting (pizza
and beer) in early April to get approval and finalize the new designs. Then we start ordering parts and materials, building new
elements and converting and reprogramming all the songs up until it's time to start putting it up.
2007 - We had to order LED's from China for the American Flag, order 8 LOR controller kits, and then build the flag, build the kits,
and Andy had to build new globes which also required ordering 8 special 3 RPM motors with a "slip-ring" type power feedthrough.
We started putting up the display on Nov. 1 and finished the day before Thanksgiving.
Q: Do you pay people to put up your display?
A: No. We pride ourselves on it being a family and friends project.
Q: How many people work on putting up the display?
A: It's mainly Dave Andy and Kelsey with some help from family and friends. In 2006, we had extra help from Jeff Beeman and Wes
Sanders. Thank you! Thanks also to Mark Stenholm and his two boys Erik and Evan for doing the voices of Rudolf and Peezy.
Q: How long does it take to program a song?
A: It varies from approximately 2 hours for the simple songs to over 20 hours for the complex songs (like "Christmas Eve
Sarajevo").
2007 - LOR just released new software a week before our Opening Night. As a former Software Manager I knew enough to stay
very far away from that stuff for 2007. I haven't even downloaded it yet. But.... There are HUGE enhancements, improvements,
etc. in LOR II, so our programming time should go down in 2008. Managing a 40 song playlist is a lot of work. Each year the
configuration of each song changes as we add (and remove) channels. First we have to manually convert each song to get it back
to the state that it previously was in, then we have to enhance each one with the new features that we have added. We had the
basic configuration figured out in June, but I still haven't completely finished all the enhancements. This year we added 5 songs
and dropped 7. See the new stuff page for more details on the songs.
Q: How many bulb do you replace each year?
A: In 2003, we replaced 629 bulbs prior to Opening Night. That's approximately 1.2% of our 54,000 lights. At that rate, we will
have replaced all of the bulbs by 2086..... We replaced 716 bulbs in 2004. 747 in 2005. A trend? We hope not. 2006 - 514 bulbs!
The trend has been reversed! 2007 - 434 bulbs. The additions of LED's should keep these numbers going down.
Q: Do you make everything, or buy it?
A: We try to make most things. That's half the fun! The following lighting elements are hand made: The Mega Tree, Icicles,
rotating globes, American Flag II, Star over Severns' house, streetlight bundles of red and white, radio station sign/snow flurry
housing, all control boxes that house the switching relays. We buy the reindeer and the festival lights that are on the Severns'
privet tree.
Q: Do you really follow the "No more than 3 strings connected end-to-end" rule?
A: Yes! The math doesn't lie. Each light string pulls between .3 and .4 amps. The fuses are 2 amp. At 4 strings, your factor of
safety (FS) is nearly gone. Any extra load and..... ZZZZZap! Connect 5 strings and you're toast. This also means don't plug more
than 30 strings to one 13 amp extension cord. Rule of thumb: If the power cord begins to feel warm, back off a few strings and
get some more power from another circuit. You can plug many strings together at the plug end, just not end to end. If all the plugs
are stacked, the additional load is traveling through the power cord and not the individual light strings. If you're really going crazy
with lots of strings, you should buy a current clamp that will tell you exactly how many amps you are pulling through a given circuit.
I got mine at Fry's for about $80. You can also buy a Watts Up? or a Kill-a-watt. These are also good for measuring power around
the house to find the "Smoking Gun".
I have noticed that the LED strings (sometimes just 50 bulbs) say the same thing about no more than three. Their fuses are the
same 2 amp fused that regular bulbs use. The power per string varies by color (blue and white take more power), but I measured
that I could connect over 20 strings end to end and still be under the load of 3 incandescent strings connected together. So I
threw that rule out the window when I connected 15 blue LED strings end to end to do the Reindeer Pond this year.
Q: Is Dave really such a Geek that he synchronizes the Xmas computer to an Atomic Clock server so the display starts at EXACTLY
5:30 pm every night?
A: Yes.
A: Uhh...Good question! What started out as two wrapped Magnolia trees in 1995 has grown every year since. It began to get
serious when Dave noticed icicles in a high-end catalog in 1996. After doing some quick math, and determining that it would cost
over $2000.00 to buy the needed amount from the catalog, Dave said "I can make these myself!". He created a prototype,
received approval from the "Tacky Committee" (see below) and started production. After that it became a case of "Hey Dave!
What are you going to do next year??".
The bottom line is: We enjoy doing it for the community. We receive great emails from people, some of which can make a person a
little misty... Check out the Sparks page for artwork that used our display as inspiration. Sneaking outside and mingling with the
crowd gives us inspiration (and sometimes constructive criticism). There is no better feeling than hearing a hard to impress 8 year
old say "Whoa!!". And finally, we do it for the food drive which raises over $25,000 each year to help feed the hungry in the South
Bay.
Q: What is the "Tacky Committee"?
A: The overall goal of our display is to be tasteful. Whenever Dave or Andy comes up with an idea, it has to be approved by the
"Tacky Committee". The "Tacky Committee" is comprised of two members (our wives). It is their job to determine if the idea for the
new addition will be tacky or tasteful. Sometimes, a prototype of the idea has to be constructed to demonstrate the idea. Other
times, we get an immediate "thumbs down". So far, the "Tacky Committee" has done an admirable job of keeping us in line (except
for the year that I snuck in a fog machine... And then there was the laser...).
Q: How many lights?
A: Over 60,000 for 2007. This is the most ever, but we never turn all the lights on at the same time. Our bushes are layered with
multi's, reds, blues, and greens. We never turn on all four at once. A breakdown can be found on the Statistics page.
Q: What is the electricity bill?
A: Each house is pulling approx. 100 amps when the all the elements of the display are on. But since we are now using digital
control, our bill is quite a bit less because all of the lights are not on all of the time. We also put the display in "power saving mode
from 10-11 pm on weekdays. Our guess is that it adds about $200-300 to Andy's bill..... But now Dave's house is solar powered
with a PV system that is sized to break-even over the year with the Christmas Display included! We ended up with a $35 surplus of
electricity after our 1 year "true-up" date in August, so we can now say that the Severns half is 100% solar powered! More info on
our Solar Site.
2007 - It turns out our "Power Saving" mode from previous years was actually using more power than the normal playlist because
the lights were on all the time (minus icicles, etc.) We have a new "Power Saving" mode this year that we think looks better and
should use less power. All LOR controlled lights slowly ramp and fade giving the display a constant color changing effect.
Q: How do you control the lights with the music?
A: The display uses a 800 mhz PC (2007 will be the last year for that relic) with two 48 channel digital output cards installed in it.
With a piece of software called Light-O-Rama, we can play a song (mp3 or wav format) and click the mouse when we want the
lights to do something. Once we have it the way we like it, we save the data to the disk and we can play the song and the lights
through LOR. It takes about 2 hours to program a simple song. It can be over 20 hours to program a complex one. In order for
LOR to control the lights, we ran over 1,500 feet of CAT 5 network cable from the PC to the different light elements. The cable
connects to control boxes which house Solid State Relays (SSRs) that switches the power to the lights. In addition to the SRRs, we
have special LOR controllers on our street lights, Rudolf 2.0, the lawn animals, the magnolia trees, and the Mega Tree that allow us
to dim, fade, shimmer, and ramp the lights. See where we are going with this? Eventually the whole display will converted to LOR
controllers. When we have time, we buy them in kit form and assemble them in the off season. If we are rushed, we pay more, but
get a fully assembled controller. In 2007, we bought eight sixteen channel LOR kits and assembled them in the off season. This
allowed us to LORify our icicles, and add all the multicolored layers of red, blue and green to the bushes and the Mag trees. The
new American Flag also has 15 channels now, so that took one controller right there. We also bought an extra to be used as a
spare.
Q: What do you do with burned out strings?
A: We fix them! We NEVER discard a string because of a failure. People say, "Yeah, but they only cost $3.00 per string!". We say,
"It's not the money, it's the principal!". The only time we sacrifice a string is when we run out of spare replacement bulbs. Over the
years, Dave has developed special tools and techniques for debugging and repairing strings. In 2004 we bought the "Blue Box"
which we immediately renamed to "Kelsey Jr.". This box costs $125 in the off season and $200 during the holiday season. It only
works with miniature light strings that have 50 bulbs in series (this covers most string types). You plug in a string, hit the big red
button and 75% of the time, the segment comes back to life (except for the dead bulb(s) which are then easy to spot) The other
25% of the time, pressing the red button will cause a electrical arc where the short is and you can zero in on the sound to find the
dead bulb. Since we are not sure how it works, we are going with obvious answer: MAGIC!!! Naturally I had to open it up and
there is some pretty strange stuff in there. But I digress. Kelsey Jr. has saved us hundreds of hours and a lot of frustration. See
the links page for the website that we bought it from. We do occasionally throw out colored strings because the paint has faded or
chipped. On hand made items like the globes, we paint the bulbs with stained glass paint when they get ratty looking.
Q: How do you turn out the street lights?
A: We trick them! We used to place a cup with a 4 watt night-light bulb over the light sensor on the top of the streetlight. This
bulb would go on when our display turned on. The light from the night-light bulb tricked the sensor into thinking it was daylight,
and the street light would shut off. When our display turned off at night, the night-light bulb would go out and the street light
would turn back on. We now use super-bright yellow LEDs to do this job.
2004 - We are now up to three wrapped street lights with our first franchised light at Ray Turner's house around the corner.
2007 - Another LOR display in Sunnyvale has demonstrated the feasibility of turning off the streetlights with a laser. Since we have
to go up anyway to wrap the streelights, the LED still works fine. Also to hit Andy's sensor with a laser would require help from
neighbors down the street.
Q: How do you get the cup/LED on top of the street light?
A: We have used various techniques. The first year, we made a giant fishing pole out of swimming pool brush poles and lowered
the cup on a hook over the sensor and released it. This was a very difficult task which took 3 people. In 1999 and 2000, we used
an 8 ft. diameter helium balloon to lift the cup. It still took 3 people, but it was a lot easier on the arms and there was less yelling.
In 2001 we broke down and rented a lift. You can see the LED on the streetlight sensors on our Behind the Scenes page.
Q: What does the city have to say about your messing around with the street lights?
For about 6 years, they had no idea because our philosophy is that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. That lasted
up until Dec. 2005 when the city was "informed" of our shenanigans..... They initially sent someone out during the day with a lift
who went up and took a look to see how we were doing it. Andy spoke to him and he agreed that we weren't causing any harm to
the street lights and our 200 amps of Christmas lights would probably light up the street better than their two street lights, but he
needed to clear it with his Supervisor. Then another guy came by at 5:00 am to ensure that the street lights were coming on after
the display turned off. Finally, a third guy showed up with his kids and watched while the display was running. I spoke to that guy,
and he gave us the "all-clear". So the answer is: They heard, they came, they saw, they approved.
Q: What do the Police and Fire Departments think of your display?
2001 - Sharon, Andy, Diane and I were out front chatting when a Sunnyvale fire truck drove slowly down the street and stopped in
front of our houses. The Fireman in the passenger seat yells out the window to us: "Hey, is this your display?" I say: "yes......". He
sticks his finger out the window and gives me one of those come here motions with a stern look on his face. I walk over feeling like
a little kid, having to look up at the Fireman in his BIG truck. When I get there he says: "I just wanted to let you know......(big
pause)...... that the Sunnyvale Police and Fire Departments think that this is the best display in the city."
2005 - I went outside and noticed three police cars out front, all strategically placed for looking at the display. I went up to one of
them, told him who I was, and asked if there was a problem. The Officer said: "THIS IS AWESOME!!!". He told me that they had
heard about the display a while ago, and this was their first slow night of the season, so they were finally able to come and see it.
2007 - A Sunnyvale HAZMAT truck drove down the street and honked and waved at us while we were working. The big question is:
What was the HAZMAT truck doing on our street?
Q: How many hours does it take to complete the Display?
A: We have no idea. A lot. We are kind of scared to keep track. In 2002, Dave started working on the new computer controls in
March. He put in a few hours a week up until "crunch time" (when the Xmas stuff shows up at OSH). At this point we start pulling
stuff out of storage and begin checking lights (it's amazing how many burn out from Jan. - Nov.) After Halloween, we start doing
things outside. Power and computer lines are run, and bushes and trees are wrapped. Also, during this time, Dave is programming
the new songs. The real work starts on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving when the hydraulic lift arrives. We then go solid
until we are done. Thanksgiving night is the first test of the major stuff. Friday night is the "dress rehearsal" and Saturday night is
Opening Night. Some data points: Each magnolia tree takes about 8 hours. The rear tree takes about 4 hours. Putting up the
icicles is 2-3 hours per house. Laying all the power and low voltage control lines (including water-proofing and debugging) takes
about 15 hours. Wrapping a streetlight is a two man job minimum (three is better) and that takes about 1 hour per light. Repairing
and hanging the garland lights in Andy's birch trees takes about 3 hours.
Actually, we start working in March. That's when we start throwing ideas around. We schedule a Tacky Committee meeting (pizza
and beer) in early April to get approval and finalize the new designs. Then we start ordering parts and materials, building new
elements and converting and reprogramming all the songs up until it's time to start putting it up.
2007 - We had to order LED's from China for the American Flag, order 8 LOR controller kits, and then build the flag, build the kits,
and Andy had to build new globes which also required ordering 8 special 3 RPM motors with a "slip-ring" type power feedthrough.
We started putting up the display on Nov. 1 and finished the day before Thanksgiving.
Q: Do you pay people to put up your display?
A: No. We pride ourselves on it being a family and friends project.
Q: How many people work on putting up the display?
A: It's mainly Dave Andy and Kelsey with some help from family and friends. In 2006, we had extra help from Jeff Beeman and Wes
Sanders. Thank you! Thanks also to Mark Stenholm and his two boys Erik and Evan for doing the voices of Rudolf and Peezy.
Q: How long does it take to program a song?
A: It varies from approximately 2 hours for the simple songs to over 20 hours for the complex songs (like "Christmas Eve
Sarajevo").
2007 - LOR just released new software a week before our Opening Night. As a former Software Manager I knew enough to stay
very far away from that stuff for 2007. I haven't even downloaded it yet. But.... There are HUGE enhancements, improvements,
etc. in LOR II, so our programming time should go down in 2008. Managing a 40 song playlist is a lot of work. Each year the
configuration of each song changes as we add (and remove) channels. First we have to manually convert each song to get it back
to the state that it previously was in, then we have to enhance each one with the new features that we have added. We had the
basic configuration figured out in June, but I still haven't completely finished all the enhancements. This year we added 5 songs
and dropped 7. See the new stuff page for more details on the songs.
Q: How many bulb do you replace each year?
A: In 2003, we replaced 629 bulbs prior to Opening Night. That's approximately 1.2% of our 54,000 lights. At that rate, we will
have replaced all of the bulbs by 2086..... We replaced 716 bulbs in 2004. 747 in 2005. A trend? We hope not. 2006 - 514 bulbs!
The trend has been reversed! 2007 - 434 bulbs. The additions of LED's should keep these numbers going down.
Q: Do you make everything, or buy it?
A: We try to make most things. That's half the fun! The following lighting elements are hand made: The Mega Tree, Icicles,
rotating globes, American Flag II, Star over Severns' house, streetlight bundles of red and white, radio station sign/snow flurry
housing, all control boxes that house the switching relays. We buy the reindeer and the festival lights that are on the Severns'
privet tree.
Q: Do you really follow the "No more than 3 strings connected end-to-end" rule?
A: Yes! The math doesn't lie. Each light string pulls between .3 and .4 amps. The fuses are 2 amp. At 4 strings, your factor of
safety (FS) is nearly gone. Any extra load and..... ZZZZZap! Connect 5 strings and you're toast. This also means don't plug more
than 30 strings to one 13 amp extension cord. Rule of thumb: If the power cord begins to feel warm, back off a few strings and
get some more power from another circuit. You can plug many strings together at the plug end, just not end to end. If all the plugs
are stacked, the additional load is traveling through the power cord and not the individual light strings. If you're really going crazy
with lots of strings, you should buy a current clamp that will tell you exactly how many amps you are pulling through a given circuit.
I got mine at Fry's for about $80. You can also buy a Watts Up? or a Kill-a-watt. These are also good for measuring power around
the house to find the "Smoking Gun".
I have noticed that the LED strings (sometimes just 50 bulbs) say the same thing about no more than three. Their fuses are the
same 2 amp fused that regular bulbs use. The power per string varies by color (blue and white take more power), but I measured
that I could connect over 20 strings end to end and still be under the load of 3 incandescent strings connected together. So I
threw that rule out the window when I connected 15 blue LED strings end to end to do the Reindeer Pond this year.
Q: Is Dave really such a Geek that he synchronizes the Xmas computer to an Atomic Clock server so the display starts at EXACTLY
5:30 pm every night?
A: Yes.
| Click image for hi-res 2006 photo |