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.
Posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong (Member # 2229) on :
The trick would be making them socially acceptable, and not merely tacky/practical.
There is a whole industry in figuring how to do that, though.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
Hmm. Would LEDs work?
--j_k
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I have two neighbors who set up light displays for every holiday already. Its a spreading fad.
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
quote:And the big point is.......
you never have to take them down.
Wait a minute. I'm confused. Are you implying that... you're normaly supposed to take xmas lights down after the holidays?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong: The trick would be making them socially acceptable, and not merely tacky/practical.
quote:Originally posted by vonk: Are you implying that... you're normaly supposed to take xmas lights down after the holidays?
Fight! Fight!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Esther, are you inciting riots again? Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
quote:Hmm. Would LEDs work?
Technically, yes. Practically, no, not yet.
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).
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
It's like the fountains of bellagio with christmas lights!!
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang:
quote:Hmm. Would LEDs work?
Technically, yes. Practically, no, not yet.
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.
Posted by Occasional (Member # 5860) on :
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.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
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.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Pfft, my family has its lights up all year anyway. We turn them on for Birthdays and Christmas.
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