House Christmas Lights

[sweetwater]

We are surrounded by people who have paid other people to wrap their tree trunks in white lights in early December. Up and down the street is a ghastly, ghostly, gauntlet of gleaming tree trunks. That's our house, there, the one that has the same yard lamp out front (with fluorescent lights) and moonlight to light it up. Maybe some year we'll put up lights. Not now - wasteful, and I'm a cheapskate.

[monster]

I got halfway through doing ours last thursday. No rush I thought -3 more days of holiday to go. Then it snowed. Bastard weather. It's still fucking snowing and not the nice fluffy playable type either.

[jinx]

Jim is always gung-ho about putting them up but a) he doesn't do it right, and b) he doesn't get around to taking them down until sometime in July - so I am always completely opposed to it. I prefer candles in the windows... goes better with the house anyway.
Last year the bastard snuck some big, colored, charlie brown lights up on the fence that looked kinda cute...

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by jinx

Last year the bastard snuck some big, colored, charlie brown lights up on the fence that looked kinda cute...

these rawk

[ZenGum]

I have recently installed some lights, but not as a Christmas thing.

I have a dark hallway and front room in my house. So dark I needed to leave a light on to be able to safely walk about at night ... waste of electricity/money/CO2.

So I got some solar powered decoration lights. One set has 300 LEDs in icicle drops, the other has nine LED stars. The stars run down the hallway and the icicles are hung around a strategic central wall. I had to do a bit of wiring to make it all reach but it worked first time.
It is free to run, automatic, and self-charging. All great except for one technical issue that I might post about here when I get time.

[Elspode]

TF in front of her house complete with lights.

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

I have recently installed some lights, but not as a Christmas thing.

I have a dark hallway and front room in my house. So dark I needed to leave a light on to be able to safely walk about at night ... waste of electricity/money/CO2.

So I got some solar powered decoration lights. One set has 300 LEDs in icicle drops, the other has nine LED stars. The stars run down the hallway and the icicles are hung around a strategic central wall. I had to do a bit of wiring to make it all reach but it worked first time.
It is free to run, automatic, and self-charging. All great except for one technical issue that I might post about here when I get time.

Where'd you get those from Zen? I'd be interested in having a look about for them.

[ZenGum]

Set of nine stars: Cheap as chips, $20

For various combinations of solar powered lights, try the Christmas decorations at target or K-mart (which seems to be much cheaper for equivalent products).

[Aliantha]

Hmmm...I'll have a look tomorrow.

Maybe we'll have lights afterall.

Thanks matey.

[Stress Puppy]

Here in Fresno, they have Christmas Tree Lane. It's about 2.5 miles long and they do it every year for the last 86 years. It's kind of amazing. They have a couple days out of the month where they block off the street and let people walk the length.

[sweetwater]

I am lurking the online catalogs for LED house lights. They were on sale last year post-holiday but there was no extra money, and I'm hoping to find them again post-holiday this year. I like the idea of using stars for the hallway. Love to see a photo [hint hint hint]

[ZenGum]

Somewhat late, here they are:


These nine stars were $20. There were a few difficulties: the distance from the solar panel to the first light was only about 3 meters. I needed about 12. It could have been an easy job to splice in some speaker wire, but (second issue) the stars are on two circuits that flash alternately (1, 3, 5, 7, 9; and 2, 4, 6, 8) and hence use 3-core wire (one for each circuit and one as a shared return, I think). So I had to get some 3-core wire to splice in. Cut, strip, crimp, tape ... to my mild surprise, it worked first time.

As well as making the wiring difficult, the flashing is in fact unwanted. I am considering simply bridging the two feed wires and seeing what happens. I'll let you know. If it works I have a second set like this which I will simply extend with 2 core wire.

Meanwhile, the icicle lights were $70, but $55 on discount:



The whole thing has a one meter drop and is about 3 meters long. It came with a 10-meter lead cord so I didn't have to do any wiring, just an awful amount on untangling. It is wrapped around a central wall so you can't see all of it here, but you can see some of it in the mirror on the left of the picture. It can cycle through about 8 combinations of flashing, but I set it for a steady glow.

Neither is bright enough to read by, but they're both enough to provide some mood lighting and make it safe to walk about at night.

[monster]

.

[sweetwater]

ZenGum, that's delightful! I've seen LED ropes (deck lights?) used in homes before, but I like the stars. Perfect for indoor sailing at night.