posted
I have a great idea, but I don't have the skills, contacts, or capital to put it into place. HOwever, I'll gladly pass it on to anyone who does, just so I can buy them in a few years.
Here's what I thought of...
Holiday Lights
It would be a string of lights, like normal, but the lights would be set much closer together, with a pattern to them. Red, Orange, White, Green, Blue, Yellow.
The secret is that each color would be on a different circuit. A controller would swicth on the colors that the owner wished, when the owner wished.
So on a nice warm spring day, and not the middle of winter's grip, you take sometime to attach theselights, semi-permanately to your roof.
Then as each holiday rolls by, you switch on the appropriate colored lights to celebrate.
Red for Valentine's Day Green for St. Patricks (and maybe Arbor Day) Red White and Blue for July 4th, Flag Day, Memorial Day, even Labor day and President's Day Orange for Halloween Maybe all of them for Diwali. and finally, your choice for Christmas.
And the big point is.......
you never have to take them down.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I have two neighbors who set up light displays for every holiday already. Its a spreading fad.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Wait a minute. I'm confused. Are you implying that... you're normaly supposed to take xmas lights down after the holidays?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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Price point for LEDs is still *much* too high for an app like this (where a strand of 100 lights goes for about 2 bucks).
Also, LEDs require drivers, meaning more circuitry and a bulky controller box at one end (which Dan's idea would already require for controls, so maybe not a big deal from that angle -- but it's flawed in a host of other ways).
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Price point for LEDs is still *much* too high for an app like this (where a strand of 100 lights goes for about 2 bucks).
Also, LEDs require drivers, meaning more circuitry and a bulky controller box at one end (which Dan's idea would already require for controls, so maybe not a big deal from that angle -- but it's flawed in a host of other ways).
Your info is dated. LED Christmas Lights are already a practical reality. Although the cost 5 - 10 times what you pay for a string of incandescent Christmas lights they use less than 5% of the electricity. For someone who is interesting in running lights for every holiday of the year, the extra cost for LEDs would pay off pretty fast.
One of my collegues replaced his christmas lights with LEDs two years ago when they were about twice as expensive. He calculated that the energy savings payed back his capital investment in the first season.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
I don't want your million dollar idea. I just want a million dollars. If you can't give me that, I will be happy taking half a million.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
For the link Lisa gave, the guy who did it has his entire light display hooked up to a computer, with special programs that match the music to the lights and controls the whole thing. I looked some of it up afterwards, the tech to do all that (the stuff sold out of the box, for laymans) is not cheap, and doesn't look particularly easy.
Originally he had the music playing in his front yard, but neighbors complained, so he bought an FM transmitter and people driving by can turn their radios to the right station and hear it.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Pfft, my family has its lights up all year anyway. We turn them on for Birthdays and Christmas.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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