Rough in for Christmas lights

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johnny watt

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I did a house a few years ago and put an outlet under each window for Christmas candles all fed on one switch.
I was thinking it might be useful to have a switched outlet in the soffits for string lights.

I?m sure I?m not the first person to think of these techniques so here?s the question?

What suggestions do you give your customers in regards to making electrical provisions for holiday lights? Or, what are some of the more elaborate holiday lighting provisions you have installed.
 
This is pretty standard on a higher end house. Usually an outlet in the soffit at each corner, and at each elevation. The don't need to be GFCI protected. I use the "flip style" WP covers. We generally install a switch in the coat closet to control the outlets so it is out of the way. I would avoid selling them a timeclock. Too confusing for some people.
 
I'll have to look up the code referance. I'm pretty sure that above a certain height (7' maybe) it isn't required.
 
I have a customer who has a photocell running a 3 pole contactor, 120/240v 4 wire receptacles at each corner of the house and distribution cords with GFCI receptacles mounted in weather proof boxes with in-use covers. A lot of over kill since there aren't any Christmas lights up this year.

My prefered approach is a photocell and timer. The photo cell turns the lights on at dark and off at daylight, optional timer shuts them off from around 11pm to 6am to save electricity.

Sometimes I've even used a wireless remote motionlight sensor so the lights turn on as someone approaches or cars drive by, stay on a few minutes, and then shut off.
 
This last Sunday Morning show on CBS had a piece that showed off the digital control of strings of lights spread down both sides of a long straight street and more than fifteen (15) houses.

The strings where on trees, outlining parts of houses or were in shapes in the yards or on the roofs.

As cars full of gawkers turned onto the street, they were instructed where to tune their radios to hear the low power broadcast neighborhood "sound track". . .high energy Christmas music.

The lights pulsed, chased, faded, strobed, all in perfect time to the sound track, with large sweeping motions along a 1000 feet of street.

Check out www.ChristmasPlanet.com

And specifically things like the DIY digital controller: http://www.planetchristmas.com/BuildYourOwn.htm
There are links to other sources on this page.

My mind was blown by the possibilities.
 
the way i did mine is a ground fault under the panal deadicated20a.to a 24 hr. timer.(the timer has a manual on/off i use in summer).that feeds two weather proof boxes on each side of the stoop. the only problem is water in the light string plugs. this year instead of tape i ty rapped plastic bags over the plugs. seems to work so far.
 
stickboy1375 said:
Any receptacle installed outside of a dwelling, except De-icers, has to be GFI protected...
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Holiday lights are not de-icing equipment.

mdshunk said:
They don't even need "flip covers", unless it rains upside down in your jurisdiction.
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I disagree, 406.8(A) requires some sort of cover in damp locations.
 
stickboy1375 said:
If you leave them on long enough and the wind flips them up on the roof they are. :)
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Nope.

Than they are just Holiday lights melting some ice.:)

The UL Tag will still say Holiday lights.
 
Thank you stickboy and iwire.

And I have to stick up for stickboy iwire, he was saying that they required gfci protection and I also agree with iwire that they not only need a cover they need a "bubble" cover.

I used to have a light display the had over 10,000 lights and people would come from all over town to see it. It would have made you all cringe. : ) But bought a new house and am just getting to old to climb up two stories to put up pretty lights.
 
cowboyjwc said:
I have to stick up for stickboy iwire, he was saying that they required gfci protection...
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I agree. I think Bob might have misunderstood what Stick was trying to say the first go-around.

cowboyjwc said:
...and I also agree with iwire that they not only need a cover they need a "bubble" cover.
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I disagree with the bubble cover - the soffit is not a wet location, it is a damp one. By 406.8(A), a regular flip cover would be acceptable in a damp location such as a soffit, IMO. 406.8(B) requires the bubble cover in wet locations.

I think if you review the definitions in 100 for "Location, Wet" and "Location, Damp", you'll see where I'm coming from as far as saying the soffit is damp and not wet. :)
 
To address this directly...
johnny watt said:
What suggestions do you give your customers in regards to making electrical provisions for holiday lights? Or, what are some of the more elaborate holiday lighting provisions you have installed.
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We have an upsell called the "Holiday Lighting Package". It includes a switched receptacle under each window in the front facade. This is what we call the "window candle circuit", and is both AFCI and GFCI protected, as it is often in bedrooms, garages, and bathrooms. It is normally on a device type (Intermatic) timer by the front door or in the garage. This upsell also includes a receptacle at each end of each soffit at each elevation, and at least every 50' for long soffits, for the front facade. This is also on a device type timer. We generally include a tail in the basement or the crawl space (in a box) for future holiday lighting receptacles in the yard/flowerbeds.
 
johnny watt said:
I did a house a few years ago and put an outlet under each window for Christmas candles all fed on one switch.
Click to expand...
You need to watch out when you do this. The rest of the year, people tend to use these outlets for normal use, like vacuuming.

We recently had to add receptacle circuits to a garage, because those on the front wall of the house were wired as you described.

It became an issue when the garage refrigerator and work bench receptacles tripped the circuit supplying the Christmas lighting circuit.
 
How's this for overkill recently installed over 2000 feet of pipe (1"pvc) along both sides of a driveway( the long winding type leading to mansion on the hill) just to power one receptacle(for xmas lights) and 1 light(for wreath) on either side of the gate. All tied to Litetouch system . After figuring voltage drop, i had to run #6's cu down both sides.If they'll spend that much to have a few lights on at xmas, what do you think they spend on presents? And yes i ran a spare
 
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