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We’re at the half-way point… only 6 months ’til Christmas! I know, summer just started, but now’s the time to start planning this year’s light show. Last year was a vast improvement on the year before, and I’ve learned a lot that’ll help me this year. While I’d love to upgrade to a Light-o-Rama kit, I doubt I’m allowed to drop over $600 on the lights this year (although if I could program TSO’s Music Box Blues, I may find a way to do it). The $600 isn’t the big deal, but the hundreds of dollars in lights & extension cords (plus the tens of hours of planning & set-up) is a big deal.

Instead I’ll focus on getting the most out of my Mr. Christmas and arranging the lights appropriately. I’ll probably add more LED lights, replacing any of the old ones that are no longer working, and work on arranging things properly (top to bottom). I also plan on adding some more daytime decorations, which will keep Laura and I busy (cutting & painting) this fall.

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I took advantage of the great weather we had this weekend & took down the Christmas lights yesterday. I would’ve liked to leave them up, but most of the snow melted & it was in the mid-30’s yesterday, so in 3 hours, I took down & put away the lights.

I’ve eyeballed the system I want to use next year, and hope to use more LEDs. I’m not tossing my existing lights ’cause they work fine, but if the cost of LEDs come down, I’ll add them in. Depending on my finances, Halloween may be upgraded in 2008, too!

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 9:46 am and is filed under Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Ah, the beauty of editing timestamps in Wordpress! No, I’m not writing this on Christmas day. But I wanted to write this post so I don’t forget then.

I hope all my readers have a great Christmas this year. Try not to stress too much, and sit back and enjoy time with your families.

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 9:58 am and is filed under Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

My Christmas lights this year are now “award-winning!” We won the Town of Tonawanda Paramedics Award for Best Classic Display for the 2007 Ken-Ton Energy Efficient Holiday Decorating Contest (try saying that in 1 breath)!

So what’s so energy efficient about my display?

• The lights flash on and off to the music. On average, less than 1/3 of my lights are on at a time (if I have everything on, it uses about 1.6 Kw of energy… when it’s running, it stays at about 550 watts)
• We only run the lights a few hours a night (3-4). Because of the speaker, I don’t want to disturb the neighbors too much. As I drive to the gym at 5:45 in the morning, I’m amazed at how many people just leave their lights on all night long.
• The spotlight on my sign is an LED spotlight. That baby uses 1.5 watts / hr; my average cost of electricity is $0.15 / Kwh, so running it for an hour costs me $0.000225. Or, I can run it for nearly 45 hours and it’ll cost me $0.01.
• All of the power in the house is provided by Green Mountain Energy Corporation. Currently, that’s 90% hydroelectric and 10% New Wind. (For comparison, the average mix of resources supplying New York includes: Natural Gas (22%), Nuclear (29%), Hydroelectric (18%), Coal (15%), Oil (14%), and Other (<3%)).

Mr. Parker: It’s a Major Award!
Swede: Shucks I wouldn’t know that. It looks like a lamp.
Mr. Parker: What is a lamp, you nincompoop? It’s a Major Award. I won it!
Swede: Damn, hell, you say won it?
Mr. Parker: Yeah, mind power, Swede; mind power.

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Christmas, Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I finally got some good video of my lights this year!

Of course, I’m using the Mr. Christmas Lights & Sounds of Christmas with an FM Transmitter. There are 6 channels with 4,186 total lights on the house. The lights are on from 6-9 each night, although we usually turn them on closer to 5, and won’t turn them off if there are cars outside watching the lights.

I also have some nice photos, which I’ve uploaded to the gallery - check them out!

Once you’ve seen the lights, if you like them, please vote for me at Bronners!

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 8:42 am and is filed under Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I realized a problem that I’ve caused with this year’s light display. As I drove down the street on the way home from Cub Scouts, there was a car blocking my driveway. So I pulled over, and then another car pulled over. They weren’t going anywhere, so I drove around & looked at other lights.

When I came back, there was a different car in front of my house, and 2 people in the driveway. Luckily, they moved when they saw I wanted to get in. Looks like the light display and sign really helped gather attention this year.

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.