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So I am buying a house and the electrical system is going to need to be fixed up. The panel needs to be replaced, along with some ground issues throughout the house that need to be resolved. Since we will be doing this very soon after closing, I figured I might as well take advantage of the circumstance and also upgrade the system to accommodate my christmas light-o-rama show. I currently have 4 CTB16PC's. I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction of what I should tell the electrician about what I need to support the LOR units. I have been reading alot of different topics relating to GFCI's and different breakers for each LOR unit... So if someone could please give me some ideas on how I should go about this for my particular scenario. I would like to leave room for expansion in the future, and like to have outlets on each side of the house. if you guys need anymore info feel free to ask, and thank you very much for anyone who reads this! have a great day!
having the outlets on the front of the house would be a huge plus, one thing I'm going to do this summer is a subpanel with 4 new GFCI outlets in the garage, each will then branch off and lead to another outlet under the eave on the front of the house.
By doing this I gain extra power outlets for tools in the garage and then should one of the outlets trip during the light show, the GFCI is easily reached within the garage instead of having to reach the outlet on the front of the house
vincerules wrote: I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction of what I should tell the electrician about what I need to support the LOR units. I have been reading alot of different topics relating to GFCI's and different breakers for each LOR unit...
If you are having an electrician do it then you won't have to worry about GFCIs and stuff because he will (hopefully!) do it in a way that has everything needed to meet building codes. I think all you really need to tell him is that you want some dedicated outlets (meaning that each has it's own breaker) and the location where you want them.
Your going to need to step back and decide on how much of a show you wish to do - numbers of lights wise. We have seen folks upgrading with two or three additional outside circuits to outlets for multiple portable sub panels. I ran a 50 amp 240V circuit and split it off to 4 - 120V 20 amp circuits. It was plenty for last year, not enough for this year unless i go LED's. The son has 10 dedicated 20 amp circuits and an RV plug available in the new house for his LOR, and he placed some of those under the eves.
You'll need to decide. Just keep these things in mind - do it safely by doing it to code! Now is the time to do it while the electrician is there. Don't think it will be cheep because the three don't mix, electricians / upgrade / cheep. But you and your family's safety is worth the extra expense.
Get a hard quote or two or three from licensed electricians - and hold em to it.
Vince, It all depends on the size of your house and what you want to do. Is the house all electric or do you have gas too? For a minimum, have a 200amp service installed. Install as many 20amp dedicated circuits as you can for lights. Think about where you would plug in roof lights, mega tree lights, or whatever and then station waterproof boxes on separate circuits in those locations. For example, I have a porch circuit, 3 quad boxes to the right of the garage, 3 to the left, and 3 to the right side of the house. All boxes are waterproof and GFCI protected. To save some money, you could have the electrician pull the romex to the location and put in breakers, and maybe install the boxes and wire the outlets yourself if he agrees.
ok, thanks to everyone so far! so far i have gathered that i probably dont need gfci's since this is going to be done by a professional electrician. the house has gas also. so im thinking of putting some outlets in front of the house (behind the bushes) on the ground to use for the yard display, and then maybe a some on each side of the roof. can someone please clear up for me how each LOR unit should be connected? is it 1 uinit on 1 breaker? or should each side of the LOR unit be on a different breaker?
vincerules wrote: ok, thanks to everyone so far! so far i have gathered that i probably dont need gfci's since this is going to be done by a professional electrician. the house has gas also. so im thinking of putting some outlets in front of the house (behind the bushes) on the ground to use for the yard display, and then maybe a some on each side of the roof. can someone please clear up for me how each LOR unit should be connected? is it 1 uinit on 1 breaker? or should each side of the LOR unit be on a different breaker?
You do need to worry about GFCI's. The point being made was that the electrician will do this. You really need to sit down and plan out your power needs - starting from your lights. This will dictate how much power you need. The PC controllers can handle up to 30 amps each - 15/side. If that is your draw, you will need 2-20amp circuits for each controller. If, however, you only draw 10 amps on one controller, you could get by with 1-20 amp circuit for the controller. Keep future growth in mind.
thank you ireq for clearing that up for me! i was reading into it the wrong way, but now it makes sense. i think i have a much better idea of what i want now, and how to explain to the electrian what i need/want and hopefully he should do everything properly and to code and i will be good to go! also keeping in mind future growth!
