LED vs Incandecent

Both bushes covered in net lights. On the left an old set of incandescent lights, on the right a new set of LED net lights.

New LED tree

Purchased late last year at Sears during there clearance sale.

New this year are the large string light trees

After the first day of decorating

The front yard starts to come alive with light.

Light-O-Rama controler

This is where all the automation and dancing of the lights is controlled.

Mini Trees from Last year return

These are made from upside down tomato cages with the tops wired together. They are then covered in a string of multi-colored and blue lights.

Big Lots LED spot lights

Amazingly Big Lots has LED spot lights as well.  Looks to be a little less durable as it is plastic. but for $10 the price is good.

Lowe’s outdoor LED spot lights

Not to be kept out of the competition Lowe’s carries a different LED spot light.  White light with the option of adding a red or green gel lenses.

Lowe’s was the only one to include the lighting facts that you see on standard light bulbs.  Rated at only 200 lumens which is not that bright, but love the option of changing to red or green included, though I could buy gels separately and place them over any of the other led spotlights.  These were $10

Home Depot LED outdoor spot lights

Found these at Home Depot.  Looks just like the LED spotlights that they were selling at Spirit Halloween for $24.  Picked some of these up at Spirit and they are supper bright.  However there is a delay when you plug them in so that would have to be factored into the sequences.

They also had the following LED spike light.  Not sure how bright these are and if there would be a similar delay or not.  Very tempting looking at the metal construction and the $7.88 price tag

Arch Design

After a lengthy trip to Menards, and searching through all the plumbing choices I finally settled on the construction materials to start building the leaping arches. Based on the flexibility and the availability of the necessary connections I settled on a 1/2″ CPVC pipe to form the arch, and decided to reuse some 1″ pvc I had left over from a project at work for the wraps of lights. I got this design after searching several websites and is a combination of a few designs. I liked the fact of using a pipe for the structure, and a separate pipe over that one for the lights. This will allow a simple change out if a string of lights fails, or if I want to switch out the design, or color of lights without having to unwrap the entire arch. Also this should allow for easier storage which is always a good thing. Putting together the cpvc and painting went by quickly,but the wrapping if the lights has proven to be time consuming and hard on the hands. Looking forward to getting the pieces done and assembled this weekend! First full weekend off since the summer started.