Ok,
So I need help to tell a very good friend and cousin-in-law that his idea is foolish. He plans on getting 1 million Christmas lights (on loan) to light up something for a Christmas surprise for his GF.
He asked me a month ago if he could power a lot of lights with a generator, and I said yes. (not knowing the actual amount, but I said he could power about 35,000 incandescent bulbs with a 2000w generator – is that right?)
I believe he is either setting himself up for failure of this not working, or is creating a major fire hazard. What are some good arguments to get him to
a) Stop the insanity
b) Alter the plan to within a safe limit of…insanity.
Replies
Well, there are so many issues it's hard to know where to start but...
I'd guess that the average Xmas light bulb is 7 watts. So you're talking about a 7 MEGAWATT generator (bigger actually but...).
PaulB
http://www.finecontracting.com
So...then the amount of heat generated from 7 Megawatts of bulbs is about 24,000,000 BTU. That's a good start seeing how for a 1500 sq. ft. well-insulated home is 80 Million BTU for a heating season...
I don't remember where I stole this photo - might have been here from seeyou - if so, I apologize to him - anyway, it seems appropriate -
View Image
btw, who loans 1,000,000,000 Christmas lights? who has to detangle them?
I shudder at the thought of detangling 1000000 christmas lights.
Yikes.
I love the neighbour's lights.
I have a friend that just took the gob of lights out of the box they were stuffed into the prior year and hung said gob in the window...kind of an abstract display. I nearly split a gut laughing the first time I saw it. Took him about 30 seconds, I imagine.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
While I am not a big celebrator of Christmas I might just do that.
On a hill by the harbour
"Took him about 30 seconds, I imagine."
That's the spirit. Get them done quick and get back to the buffet, out to play street hockey, have a nap or a dozen other fun seasonal things. I quite like watching other people put their lights up.
forget the power needs
does he know how long it would take to put up a million lights?
Retired farmer in my area puts up 55,000 lights every year. believe it takes him about 4 days with a helper. Course he's 77
Man it takes me 4 hours to just put 250 c-9's on my roof! Just getting the strands ready to be placed takes 2 hours and then there's the little buggers about the yard. They take a day. All in all I spend about 2 days and I'm not close to any of those guys.
See bad pic attached.
The spacing's a liitle tight on two of the green ones near the center of the ridge.
Forrest
Thanks
nicetakes me that long to get them untangled
Barry E-Remodeler
Don't know exactly what the power requirements are - too many variables.
If you had 35,000 one watt bulbs, you would need 291 amps at 120v - work from here - you should get the idea really quick. 3w bulbs = 875 amps, 5w bulbs = 1458 amps
What I do know:
There is a fellow who lives close to me (and closer to DelawareDave# in Red Lion, DE, that puts up 1,000,000 + Christmas lights each year. Sort of a local celebrity. Articles in the local paper every year about him.
He #and a volunteer crew) start hanging lights before Thanksgiving - gets finished a few weeks later.
House, yard, trees, choir, Cresche, sleighs, reindeer, angels, snowmen, etc. are lit every night until New years Eve. On at dark, off about 11pm.
The local POCO has a substation right next door and runs additional service for him during the "lighting season". Has a donation box at the end of the driveway to help pay the power bill.
Major attraction - different every year - a yearly visit is required - traffic jams abound. It is cool to go with young children....
DW used to be occasionally assigned by her previous company to "show the sights" to business associates from overseas - they always loved it - "Americana on Parade."
The standing joke is, "if you get lost finding the house - just head toward the glow in the sky." Said as a joke, but it actually works.....
Jim
I think one light and 999,999,999 mirrors would be easier and cheaper.
Just flatten a few disco balls.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
PROUD MEMBER OF THE " I ROCKED WITH REZ" CLUB
That's a very good point. Why not put up 250,000 and say there's a million. That's a lot of freakin lights. Tell them to count them and prove your wrong. At say, 4 bulbs a second it'll take anyone over 17 hours to count.
Edited 12/3/2009 12:59 pm by jagwah
"Why not put up 250,000 and say there's a million. That's a lot of freakin lights"
Tell your boss tomorrow that whatever he is paying you isn't enough! That's exactly what to do. Your idea saves the poor guy 750 000 lights and there is no way conceivable she would ever know.
Edited 12/4/2009 12:47 am ET by fingersandtoes
Incandescent miniature Christmas lights are about 1/2W per bulb. At that rate, figure a 2000W generator powering about 4000 bulbs. At that rate, it would take 250 generators. It would probably take a crew of two or three or more just to keep that many generators fueled and running. If you have neighbors, they will probably come out with shotguns to stop the noise after about the third one is started. The good news, you won't hear the shots over the noise of the generators.
There are 500kW and larger diesel generators. This is probably on the order of the generators that itinerant carnival operators use that are mounted on a semi-trailer. A 500kW generator has about a 775hp engine. A bit more than that pull start Honda you carry around in the back of your truck.
You could reduce the power requirements considerably by using LED lights. I believe, I have heard them described as using 80% less electricity which would bring you down to 100kW or 50 2000W generators. Since the LED lights are considerably more expensive and new, it is unlikely you can find a million of them sitting around that can be borrowed for free or even cheap.
My setup is fed by two 20 amp circuits, both going thru a double circuited Intermatic timer.
Prior to led's, I max out with about 12,000 lights. Much of that is due to some 40 strings of C9's, some real power hungry ones. It becomes a real electrical engineering process to hook all of these up so the extension cords aren't overloaded and blowing their own fuses. It takes about 4 days to a week to place them, even with help. Now I don't play the game of simply throwing lights out and about or following house lines. Any light that gets placed has to be a part of an overall design.
Now, with led's, I've been able to replace soome of the old, shorter life strings and add more. This year, I'll place about 19,000 within the same power feed. Next year, I'll begin to replace the big C9's with led C9's and add a few more. Now takes about a week. By myself.
Unless I get tired of this 30 foot Blue Spruce at the corner of the house and cut it down. I have to rent a man lift for a couple of days to get that one in shape.
Thanks for the info, that will provide me with some real life experience to help this guy.
Pete,
Have you seen any of the LED C-9's in action? Neighbor put some LED's this year and when you're approaching his house on the street all of the green washes the red out so it looks like it's all green (he alternated red and green). Course he spaced the bulb three inches apart and used a shingle clip in each one.
My old spanking fashioned C-9's look just good. Gotta fix the motor in the giant snow globe one of these days...
Waiting for a snow storm (proably in vain) to take a good picture...View Image
Smurfs meep in Blue
Yeah, my neighbors did their tree in (I guess) LED's that go from white to blue to purple to red, way cool. Any links to sources?
k
Duuno abou the light changing one...but I saw the led C-9's at an True Value hardware store....
I did notice that the actual bulb size was small and it looked like the C-9 part was just a plastic casing...
Gotta say tho, the neighbors look not so good, just don't see to have the brightness....View Image
Smurfs meep in Blue
Use LED's, if you use incandescents you're only gonna be able to use three strings together...
Gonna take a lot of extension cords...
Smurfs meep in Blue
"Gonna take a lot of extension cords..."Geez, and imagine a long steel beam somewhere in the house, with all that wire wrapped around it. All the neighbors' pacemakers will be pumping them up totally hyper at 60 Hz!
Most that I've seen are twisted pair, so that should cancel out.
-- J.S.
No good practical advice, but I am an amateur observer of relationships and their demise. I have noticed a direct correlation between the amount of energy put into special events like this, or weddings and birthdays, and an immanent breakup. In my experience, the best indicator that divorce is in the cards is a very expensive gift of jewelry. He puts up those million lights at his own peril.
Interesting. We'll see, I guess. I can't tell you that you're wrong...
I have noticed a direct correlation between the amount of energy put into special events like this, or weddings and birthdays, and an immanent breakup.
That's my marital ruler when a couple calls for a remodel. If it looks like there on the skide he's usually going to finally do that kitchen or bath to make up. A younger couple either gets a puppy or pregnant. I listen very carefully at first meet for those tell tale signs of tension. It's been years but the last time I got in the middle of an ending marraig their kitchen remodel darn near killed me mentally.
From my own drama I've learned once the word divorce or breakup has been said no gift or force on earth can get the toothpaste back in the tube, only prolongs the torture.
Couples are fun aren't they? I just met with these people who had been discussing a renovation to a house I designed for them ten years ago. He pulled out pages and pages of sketches - which he hadn't shown or discussed with her, and because he sprung them on her she reflexively decided she hated. Complete waste of time.
Puppies are good. The announcement of a wedding after years of living together for no apparent reason is another sure sign.
One year I thought it would be romantic to redo our vows. When I asked my wife what she thought she was angry and didn't want to talk about it. I was so slow that I never put two and two together untill the following year when she asked for a divorce. I didn't have a clue we had problems. But found out later she had been secretly meeting a co-worker on the side. Silly me.
But the good news is I'm with the best sweety I could ever have hoped for...er, at least until she tells me different. Such is life.
As for remodeling troubled couples, if you can stand the noise better you get their money than the lawyer. Besides if they divorce the house will likely sell and you won't have to honor a warranty.
One million of anything is such a large quantity it is difficult to comprehend. Things to consider include the :
power consumption - power to be provided
power dissipation - getting rid of the heat associated with running the lights
weight - can you carry the load of the lights, especially with wind, rain and ice
cost - who's going to pay and how much
availability - when, where do you get them
Etc.
The logic in all of it is just wrong. Even if they cost you a penney a bulb for 1,000,000 bulbs you'd be out of pocket $10,000 and I doubt you could rent them for that.
Better to arrange enough lights to spell out "ONE MILLION LIGHTS". Probably could do it with 40 regular strands of c-9's or just buy a couple dozen rope lights.
3.5 Million lights. http://www.cliftonmill.com/
6 men 3 months, dang skippy your gonna charge and sell food. Looks like a killer piece of work.
It's amazing. I'm going to go see it this year again if I have time.
Ask Clark Griswold aka Chevy chase, he figured it out in "Christmas Vacation".
How about put in 500,000 lights, tell her it is a million and I bet good money she wouldn't know the difference!
I think 3 search lights in the yard would have a better effect, especially if there was a huge sign to light up with his message on it.
Would this send the wrong message?
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Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
LMAO.
Because I've done that.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
PROUD MEMBER OF THE " I ROCKED WITH REZ" CLUB
Bad Santa!!!
Haha!! That made me laugh! Thanks!