920,000 xmas lights and still going

Using the formula, that volts x amps = watts, you should be able to calculate. Buy a Kill A Watt, and log the actual draw of each string. Hire a couple high school math students to do the calculations. My SWAG is that you'll be fine with 100 amps.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

All these lights will be animated to music. The sound system will have twelve 5000 watt power amplifiers.

My house breaker box has a 100A main. The garage has another 100A main. The house uses power for regular household stuff and electric water heater, and electric in the floor radiant heating.

The garage power is not used too often except for the ceiling lights and a few power tools. I plan to use both buildings for my Christmas lights. Do you think I will have enough power for my planned lighting, or should I upgrade one of these panels to 200A?

I can see you don't live on the East coast.

Christmas lights are a frivolous waste of energy and should be banned.

by a bunch of religious nuts.

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re: "All the energy we've saved by using Energy Star products is being wasted by a bunch of religious nuts." "

Hmmm...let's do the math...

Energy used before Energy Star products came along + Christmas Lights =3D X amount of electricity

Energy used after Energy Star products came along + Christmas Lights =3D X amount of electricity - the savings from the Energy Star products.

The savings is still there because the Christmas lights were always there.

bunch of religious nuts.

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Most Christmas lights are smaller than the old 7 watt bulbs and/or are now LED lights which use a negligible amount of power. ^_^

TDD

Yah, because 920,000 led bulbs would use hardly any electricity. /sarcasm

A lot less than 920,000 7 watt incandescent light bulbs. /fact

TDD

Those old lamps also had high waste coloring. Not that bright.

Greg

Yea, I remember looking at the glass of broken painted bulbs and wondering why so opaque? ^_^

TDD

Read what the OP wrote. The lights will be animated to music. That means they're not on continuously. Energy still equals power multiplied by time. I hope the OP will also post the kWh used from his electric bill.

Tomsic

I posted a link to a video of a fellow who did a Halloween theme to his home that had an incredible light show synchronized to music. ^_^

Most of my Christmas lights have been replaced with LED ones (I'm still changing the animated deer to LED), which use less than 50% as much electricity as before.

Also, the LED lights have better color. LED lights put out light that is actually that color (for example red) rather than filtering yellowish white light. The color is more intense and doesn't fade. Also, you can get white LEDs that are actually white.

Have you checked the difference in power consumption between the LED and incandescent lamps? ^_^

TDD

A typical led will draw .06 watt. If driven with dc. Unless the XMAS lights have circuitry, they are going to only light 50% of the time and flash an irritating 60 times a second. They can also be wired to flash a better 120 a second, or better yet, have more regulation to be closer to dc. Some people can't stand to look at flashing LEDs.

Most of the white LEDs are still bluish. I think they look cool for ice cycles. That's about it. I bought my first led string several years ago. It went bad, and back to cheap bulbs.

Greg