The Energy Efficient Holiday Light Spectacular: Questions/Answers

There are all sorts of questions about the display! But some of them come up more frequently than others. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions, along with some of my favorites mixed in.

How much did all of this cost?

A lot of the cost was in terms of labor. This project ate so much of my spare time! As far as money, the Christmas lights are my present to the city, and I would never tell someone how much money their present costs!

How much power does this take? What is your electric bill like?

The display consumes very little electricity. 99.99% of the lights are low-power LED lights. The remaining two regular lights, inside of the snowflake projectors, seem to consume about a third of the power used in the lighting.

Because the lights are computer controlled, even more energy is saved. On average, one-third or less of the lights are lit at any one time. And because the display uses an FM transmitter, very large outdoor speakers which require a lot of energy are not needed.

Overall, the lights draw 170 watts. That would put it in the power consumption range of a large tube television. It is estimated that the lights, active from 5pm to 10pm, and static from 10pm to 9am, costs only $5.30 to operate for a month (66.3KWH a month at $0.08 per KWH.

A small PC (without a monitor) controls the display. Relatively speaking, it eats a great deal of power. It consumes approximately 100 watts of power and runs 24 hours a day, would likely cost another $5.76 to keep running for a month (72KWH a month at $0.08 per KWH). The PC costs more money to run than the lights!

Did you set a limit on how much power your display could draw?

All the lights had to be fed through a single electrical outlet. That's 15 amps of power, or 1800 watts. That single electrical connection could be branched off, as needed, but no additional circuits were allowed.

See the power section of this website for more information.

How many lights are in your display?

The current estimate is approximately 7,500 LED lights, and two indandescent bulbs, all under computer control.

Is it possible for someone else to program a song for your display?

Yes! Although, I can't promise that, if you make a sequence, I will use it. But if you do make something awesome, how could I resist?

You'll need to download the Light-O-Rama Demo Software, which will allow you to create and save all the sequences you want. To get you started, I have supplied a sample Light-O-Rama sequence file that has a channel listing for the house, and the matching audio file for the sequence.

You'll be able to find some traning presentations and tutorials at the Light-O-Rama support page. The LOR Wiki may also be of some additional help. I'm afraid that I will not have time during the holidays to answer many, if any, questions about creating a sequence.

Because the display is LED based, you don't have to worry about turning on too many channels at once and overloading a circuit breaker. However, you need to pick songs that are readily available and can be legally obtained. Songs from iTunes are ideal, although actual CDs will work just as well. MP3s are acceptable only if they are your own work.

When you are ready to send us your files, contact us through the feedback form.

I got home and I tuned to your radio station, but I couldn't hear anything!

The radio station was designed to be heard while watching the display. The lights in the display are synchronized to the music. So there isn't much point in listening to the station at home -- it would just be the same songs over and over again.

If it was up to me, I'd add a little more power to the radio station, just to make it a bit clearer to hear up and down the street. But the Federal Communications Commission puts a limit on micro-powered FM transmitters (stations which do not require a license to operate).

Among other things, they can't interfere with other stations in the area, and they can't transmit with enough power to go much more than a city block. It's the best that it can be without becoming a full-blown government licensed radio station.

Okay, but 91.1FM? I get it! 9-1-1... an emergency, right? Or is it 9-11?

It happens to be a coincidence, but I understand those who would be suspicious of it. The transmitter I modified had the most power towards the lower station numbers, so I started out looking for a suitable frequency at the low end of the FM broadcast spectrum and worked my way up.

Even in a secondary market, you wouldn't believe how crowded our radio frequencies are. Worse, being on the inside edge of a small valley, there is a lot of random signal reflection going on.

As it turned out, 91.1FM was not only the lowest station that had the clearest signal, it was really the only station that I found that I could get a decent signal out of. So it stuck.

I was at the lights. Why did I only hear static on the radio station?

The radio station is only active from 5pm-10pm. After that time, the transmitter automatically shuts itself off, the lights go to half power and a few simple patterns run all night long. But there is no music played or FM signal transmitted during that time.

I thought LED were cheap to run. Why only the fun part from 5pm to 10pm?

If I thought nobody would mind, I'd love to play the songs all night long. But across the street, the backs of a few homes face me. I have to be sensitive to the needs of my neighbors, who need a good night's sleep. For this same reason, I can't restart the lights for late night visitors. I'm sorry. I have to put my neighbors first.

Sometimes, because of a quirk in the scheduling software, the active part of the display could end as late as 10:30pm. But that should be unusual, and people who want to see all the songs should plan to be here no later than 9:30pm. Again, once the display stops at the end of the day, it cannot be restarted.

From 10pm at night until 9am the next morning, the lights will continue to run. But they will be a more subdued pattern that is not synchronized to music. They pattern is usually at half the regular brightness, and will not flash nearly as much. Again, this is to allow my neighbors a restful sleep.

At 9am, the lights turn off, because they are no longer visible during the daylight. The lights turn back on again at 5pm.

How long did it take to put everything together?

There were so many steps involved. Researching the technology and product choices, picking a technological direction, purchasing hardware, testing components, song research and selection, creating musical sequences ("sequencing"), additional planning and integration testing. This took up far too much of my spare time.

I started in May of 2006, and I would estimate that I've spent two or three hundred hours on the project. The most time consuming task was sequencing. For each minute of music, it can take from one to four hours to carefully choreograph the lights to it.