# Wasted watts



## edthehorse (Mar 12, 2006)

kksjurHas anyone else ever noticed that people string there xmas lights way too early. Ive seen them on as early as October. Dont get me wrong, I love the celebration of christmas but, can you imagine the amount of electricity it takes to run all the xmas lights in North America. All of the coal fired hydro plants and other resources that are used up not to mention the damage to the enviroment. There should be a law! No Christmas lights before December 15th and turn them off by Jan. 2nd. Waddaya tink folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!hwopv


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Christmas lights and a whole lot of other things. As for me and my household, no decor before Advent, no lights before dark (and later in Advent, about now-ish), and the tree even later, especially that my kids don't live here all the time now.

Merry Christmas!

Peace, Mooh.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

Me either! just put the lights up yesterday (due to pressure from my 4 year old) and will likely put the tree up this weekend. I love christmas, but I get tired of the clutter!


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## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

One of the reasons google invented this search engine.
http://www.blackle.com/
Same as google search,just a darker screen.If theirs no change in the way we get our electricity allot of websites will have to adopt this energy saving method.Especially facebook.


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I don't even notice what the neighborhoods are doing unless they go all "Griswold" on their house. Which incidentally one of my neighbors did. Personally if its legal I don't give a rats ass. Maybe I should care more about the environment but on the upside I get along real well with my neighbors.


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## Morbo (Aug 26, 2009)

guitarman2 said:


> I don't even notice what the neighborhoods are doing unless they go all "Griswold" on their house. Which incidentally one of my neighbors did. Personally if its legal I don't give a rats ass. Maybe I should care more about the environment but on the upside I get along real well with my neighbors.


I had a neighbor right across the street who used to break some kind of record each year, burying his house under a surreal amount of light bulbs. Funny thing is, one night part of my neighborhood had a power failure, but the other side of the street still had power. This guy had so much Christmas lights that it was bright as day inside my house, no need for candles or flashlights. That house was visible from space I'm certain of it.


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

there are houses locally that have xmas lights on all year round...those "icicles" look great...especially in the summertime...


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

\


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2009)

Ohhhh...I really like that idea. Tying an outlet to the night time sensor. I have one of those sensors on my house that controls the light above my house number. Would be an easy thing to put an outdoor socket inline with it....hmm....weekend project I think...



bobb said:


>


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

many of my neighbors had the lights up immediately after halloween!!!

as a rule - I don't put 'em up before Dec 1st.

as my oldest offpring says - "happy Chocolate Calendar Month"


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

bobb said:


> \


I like the technique of focussing all that candlepower in one spot for maximum impact. If the hanger needs any support for that explanation to their spouse, I'll be glad to offer my rationale.

Now, can we get back to the game?:smilie_flagge17:


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## edthehorse (Mar 12, 2006)

*but we are missing the point*

Its all about wasted watts and putting preasure on the enviroment. Im not a tree hugger or anything like that. I just think that it takles soooo much to make these power stations work eficiently and taxing the grid with all these yuletime lights is plain stupid. Remember the blackout a few summers ago and the neighbours were forced to go out and chat with others opposed to watching tv, well as nice as that was with the power outage causing it, an outage in the middle of winter would be disasterous. Wer'e so spoiled with being able to flick a switch and flush a toilet. Oh yes we need power to make the water flow to the toilets. I just think that there must be millions of watts wasted at this time of year. So waddaya tink folks? Should hanging xmas lights be restricted to a few weeks over the hollidays?!? oh my God Im babbling hehehehe. Ah what the heck, Im gonna crank up my 72 twin reverb, crak open the egg nog, turn on my lights, and see if I can cause a brown out lol Merry Christmas everyone.....:bow:


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

There is tons of wasted electricity.

The problem is, everyone sees it as a S.E.P. Somebody Else's Problem.

Rep to anyone who knows the reference.


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2009)

edthehorse said:


> I just think that there must be millions of watts wasted at this time of year.


I don't. The lights are pretty. Ergo: not a waste. :smile:



> So waddaya tink folks?


I think you should do as your conscience dictates, not worry so much about the neighbours. But I'm like that.



> Should hanging xmas lights be restricted to a few weeks over the hollidays?!?


Do we need to legislate this? No. Very definitely no. More laws are not what we need.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

iaresee said:


> ....
> 
> Do we need to legislate this? No. Very definitely no. More laws are not what we need.


>_> well... for purely decorative festive lighting, going to LED may be a wise move that may be something functional if back by regulations.


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2009)

keeperofthegood said:


> >_> well... for purely decorative festive lighting, going to LED may be a wise move that may be something functional if back by regulations.


Doubtul. Pitching perfectly functioning lights just for the sake of reducing power consumption fills a landfill unnecessarily.

Besides: the point of my post was more to say that for every person you think is wasting electricity running lights on their house I'm sure we can drum up someone who thinks you're wasting electricity plugging in an electric guitar to amplifier and wailing away for a few hours every night. Should we legislate when and for how long you can play your guitar every year? Should we outlaw amplifiers above 0.5W because really, you just don't need more than that right? You want to talk waste? Lets talk attenuators like a Hot Plate -- there's waste. Maybe we should outlaw those? They let you run your amps full bore but keep your ears. Where does all that power go? Dissipated as waste heat energy. From a electrical system design standpoint heat is pure waste. :smile:

No. One person's waste is another person's happiness. Mind your own P's and Q's and let others worry about their own.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

iaresee said:


> I don't. The lights are pretty. Ergo: not a waste. :smile:
> 
> 
> I think you should do as your conscience dictates, not worry so much about the neighbours. But I'm like that.
> ...


Hmmm, So me packing my Wee on into the Truck to bring her around to see all the "cray" lights is wasting fule I suppose? Oh well I thank the folks who go all Griswold this time of year and the smile on my Wee one's face is SO worth the fuel I waste! Merry Christmas ya'll!!!:smilie_flagge17:


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## 1PUTTS (Sep 8, 2007)

Here's one that somebody sent me. The story goes that this person had to take down his little display after a few days due to numerous 911 calls and people driving up on the lawn trying to "save him". Pretty clever if you ask me...


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## edthehorse (Mar 12, 2006)

Hmmm.... I can see, many of you missed my point. I will try again. I agrree with having Xmas lights up. They are festive and its nice to take the family out to see them.

But Hey! Lets not put them up as soon as Hollaween is over kqoct


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## Waldo97 (Jul 4, 2020)

edthehorse said:


> Hmmm.... I can see, many of you missed my point. I will try again. I agrree with having Xmas lights up. They are festive and its nice to take the family out to see them.
> 
> But Hey! Lets not put them up as soon as Hollaween is over kqoct


yes


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I worry more about the wasted pickles people take off their McDonald's hamburgers.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

The only external lights I run are projector style / lasers with beam splitters.

No way am I climbing on a ladder for that.

Takes five minutes to stick them into the ground and plug them into a photosensor activated light bar.

I generally put them out around Dec 18, put them away January 2ish.


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## boyscout (Feb 14, 2009)

edthehorse said:


> Hmmm.... I can see, many of you missed my point. I will try again. I agrree with having Xmas lights up. They are festive and its nice to take the family out to see them.
> 
> But Hey! Lets not put them up as soon as Hollaween is over kqoct


Should be a law, no Christmas decorations before November 25th.

I have to admit, though, that I went crazy with lights on a very big house one year and then it felt like too much work to take them down so they stayed up all year. I'm not proud of it.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

I put ours up when the weather is semi-decent. We just don't plug them in until December 9th (day after Magg's birthday).


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

butterknucket said:


> I worry more about the wasted pickles people take off their McDonald's hamburgers.


My son does that, but, if we are together he gives them to me so no waste.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

When we bought the house in '85 I redid the roof and put Xmas lights up at the same time. They were still up when we sold the place in '94 and most of them worked. I quit replacing burnt out ones in about '91 or so. Ran out of light bulbs. They would get turned on and off through out the year. No reason to take them down tho they were not that far off the ground. For all I know they are still up. Indoor decorations, depending on how many cats are around sometime between now and my birthday and come down by the 28th of Dec by the latest.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Perhaps our city can create a by-law? No xmas light sup before Dec 1. Not to be utilized, turned on after Jan 5 or so? Also only LED lights. They use a fraction of electricity by comparison.
Yet more rules...Yes I agree too many already. More common sense would be better to legislate somehow.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

allthumbs56 said:


> I put ours up when the weather is semi-decent


I do this too. October, when I go on the roof to clear leaves out of the eaves.
Don't plug them in till advent and unplug on epistle.
Got them set on a timer.
I still use the same family owned 50yr old line from my childhood. Can still buy those big bulbs.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

My one "bat-shit-crazy" neighbor never uses any lights in her house. It's always dark. You might see a little glow in the kitchen like a range hood light while she's cooking, but that's it. Must be saving the planet. 

We leave every light in our house on, purposely, just to piss her off.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Lincoln said:


> My one "bat-shit-crazy" neighbor never uses any lights in her house. It's always dark. You might see a little glow in the kitchen like a range hood light while she's cooking, but that's it. Must be saving the planet.
> 
> We leave every light in our house on, purposely, just to piss her off.


That must be your place, on the right just a little bit in from the edge and up from the middle.


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