GFCI Outlets - MORE!
2004 Update: Click here to HEAR the Christmas lights go on and off
- more christmas music
and christmas lights videos.
The X10 Super Sockets have mechanical relays - yea, I know my microphone is lame! ;-)
2012 Update:
I wrote up about to fix and repair the SR227 X10 Super Sockets
There were
Christmas 2000
and
Christmas 2001.
As you can imagine, this draws a bit of power (almost 60 amps last year),
which required a bit of balancing since I don't like to draw more than
12 amps/circuit or a GFCI outlet. Even so, the wires/outlets would
get a bit warm, my wife would complain about not being able to use the
hair dryer, and there were a few other mildly annoying things.
So I decided to run some dedicated GFCI circuits directly from the breaker box
to a panel of outlets outside the house. Here's what it looks like:
The two boxes on the far right are provisioned for future expansion;
I ran an additional two sets of wire in case I ever need it - all I
have to do is add/connect outlets and breakers, and another 30 amps ready to go.
The other two boxes on the top aren't actually "used", since they contain
double GFI outlets, since I didn't put GFI outlets in the breaker box.
And then those feed the double X10 outlets below where we actually plug in the
Xmas lights and control them automatically. A total of 4 circuits and 60 amps of juice.
I only had one slot left on the breaker box, so I had to double up two existing
single pulls to tandems, added two more tandems (first time I've ever
done work inside the breaker box ;-), and pulled a buncha 12 gauge wire.
This stays completely outside the house as shown in this picture
of the conduit run:
BTW, Steve from Home Depot was darn helpful throughout this process;
so if you are ever in the Louisville, Colorado store, look for this guy in
the electrical department:
Always use a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter to protect your outlets