Accessorizing

As I am adding more lights this year I had a couple of concerns:

How much power I am drawing.
How can I attach some of my new lights to the side of my house (Stucco).

I really wanted to get a good understanding of the load I am putting on my electrical system, I’ve been quoted close to $3k to upgrade my panel and add 10 dedicated circuits to my outside so I’m trying to work with what I have for power supply this year. To measure the amps of each string I purchased myself a little toy to allow me to track how much power I was drawing through each controller and the outlet it is connected to.

My second concern was how I could attach some of the RGB lights to my stucco. I resolved this with some shingle speed tabs and parapet clips from Holiday Lighting Outlet. There are lots of suppliers that sell these clips but I choose Holiday Lighting Outlet because they ship to Canada (even better that my order qualified for free shipping). Ordering and shipping items from the US can be a great challenge, many vendors will not ship to Canada due to past issues with import charges or they charge such a large amount it is not justifiable (I’ve seen $100 + shipping quotes on $20 of product) for the purchase.

I am really excited I found somewhere I can buy high quality clips from that will ship to Canada so I don’t have to use the over the counter ones I have relied on for the last couple of years.

I also ordered some LED C7 replacement bulbs from Holiday Lighting outlet to replace the incandescent bulbs in my giant pathway lights (part of concern #1 as these and my candy canes are my only non LED lights in my entire display).