It's About Time!

Welcome to your April 2008 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter! It is published regularly and covers relative topics for the Christmas decorating enthusiast.

Here's what you can read about in this April 2008 newsletter:

• A Green Christmas Display
• Rudolph's Rumor Run
• Checked the Forums Lately?
• Tell the World What's Happening
• PLUS2009 Update
• Tip of the Month
• PlanetChristmas Radio
• Newsletter Suggestions
• Registering for the PlanetChristmas Newsletter
• And finally...

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A "Green" Christmas Display?

Got my electric bill early this month and there was a little paragraph warning the price of electricity would be going up soon. Looked around my house and it's hard to find an incandescent bulb because I've already replaced them with the little swirly compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). My heating and air conditioning system has a programmable thermostat to alter the temperature when the house isn't being used. Almost all the appliances in the house have the government Energy Star logo. I'm running out of ways to painlessly conserve electricity.

Then I got to thinking about the electricity consumption of large Christmas displays... I've been known to have a few in my lifetime and they can be real energy hogs. Computerizing the lights saves a huge amount of electricity (25-80%) but you still catch flack from the hardcore environmentalists for wasting energy.

What about a solar powered display? Now that would be making an environmental statement! The first thing I did was go to the PlanetChristmas "Figuring Power" page at http://www.planetchristmas.com/FigurePower.htm. Didn't take long to decide I could have a great display with 15,000 lights using just LEDs and keep my total current draw to 15 amps or less.

Went to the local bookstore and picked up a great magazine called "Home Power" (www.homepower.com). For the DIY or just curious type person, it's a great read showing all the different ways to lessen your dependency on the electrical grid. One thing became evident in a hurry... a solar powered display was very doable but it had the potential of getting really complicated.

Solar power makes a lot of sense when the sun is shining, but Christmas displays look best when it's dark. You need solar cells, power regulators, batteries and deep pockets to pay for everything. Much to my surprise, there's a very complicated equation required that factors in which way the solar cells are facing, average number of sunlight hours per day in your region, how much current you require, the type of typical power loads anticipated, the efficiency of the power converters, types of batteries you are using, how many batteries you have and how the batteries will be charged. Jeeeessseeee. This can be really confusing stuff and it reminded me of the very early days of personal computers when there were no package deals.

After much head scratching and finally talking to some solar power vendors, I figured I could get a very reliable system installed for a tad less than $20,000 and have the peace of mind knowing my display was using a totally renewable resource that was pollution free. When I told my wife she gave me her all-too-familiar "dolt" look. Spending $20,000 to save the extra $30 I would spend with the electric company to power this display didn't make any sense at all. Using the solar power to feed the house the rest of the year did sound like an easier way to justify something like this ... so let's just say we're thinking about it.

Obviously generating your own electricity to just power a Christmas display does not make any financial sense for 99% of us. It does make a lot of sense to transition to LED lights as soon as practical because they use around 80% less power, last almost forever and have such pure colors. We make lifelong memories for so many people with our Christmas displays and there's no reason we can't be eco-friendly at the same time.

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Rudolph's Rumor Run

Lots of rumors swirling around out there. I usually ignore them, but some just need to be shared.

• There's a new company called Galaxia getting ready to roll out a product this quarter that combines a light controller with some sort of custom LED strings allowing for very finite control of the bulbs... the company is quite elusive with the details but it sounds very intriguing.
• I'm getting wind of a low priced "next generation" networkable four channel controller coming out of Animated Lighting. I'm seeing the need of a lot fewer extension cords if this rumor proves true.
• Light-O-Rama's big annual sale is coming soon and insiders say some buyers will get their orders for free... now that's an economic stimulus!

Got any juicy bits of gossip you want to share with the PlanetChristmas community? Send a tip to csmith@PlanetChristmas.com

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The PlanetChristmas community has grown too fast and our host provider could not keep up. We recently moved to a new provider that supplies us with a forums infrastructure that can scale as we grow plus provide many new features. All the information from our old forums has been moved to the new place and your account name and password remain the same. The look and feel of our new home might be a little different but we are much better positioned for the future.

We now have sub-forums and blogging capability in our PlanetChristmas community. Behind the scenes, there are all kinds of features to better moderate what's going on and keep out the bad guys set on violating our three fundamental rules of positive, family friendly and Christmas centric.

If you haven't found the updated PlanetChristmas forums yet, go to http://www.planetchristmas.com/talk.htm. We've recently added more forums and made it a little easier to get around. Never forget PlanetChristmas believes strongly in protecting your privacy so personal information about your account is never sold or shared with anyone.

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Tell the World What's Happening in Your Area!

With our new PlanetChristmas forums, there's now a section where you can go down to the state level and post information about what's going on. Use this to let your community know about events and also remember to place important dates on our public calendar. Want a shortcut to the PlanetChristmas forums? http://forums.planetchristmas.com

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PLUS2009

Behind the scenes planning continues for our bi-annual gathering, an event we call PlanetChristmas Lights Up Symposium or PLUS. There's not a whole lot of new information to distribute just yet other than I'm still wading through the very lengthy list of volunteers for the Steering Committee and listening to sales pitches of professional companies that want to run our show.

Want an easy way to keep up with PLUS information? Go to the new website at www.PlusForUs.com. It's the first place new PLUS information is shared with others.

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PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month

Lots of merchants are planning sales to correspond to the economic stimulus checks being distributed by the government starting in May. Do your patriotic duty and stimulate the PlanetChristmas vendors. They will very much appreciate the business and give you a good deal so your 2008 Christmas display will make memories for so many people.

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PlanetChristmas Shameless Promotion

The official 2008 PlanetChristmas caps and shirts have arrived. See all the details at http://www.planetchristmas.com/Merchandise.htm. Money collected from these sales goes toward PlanetChristmas and PLUS.

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PlanetChristmas will soon be Selling Best-of-Breed

I've talked to a lot of people over the last few months and it's amazing how many struggle with knowing where to buy stuff for their Christmas displays. I always route them to PlanetChristmas vendors but they still get frustrated. As I looked at the problem, I'll have to admit building a fancy display can be overwhelming to the novice. I've been working with many of the PlanetChristmas vendors about how to address the issue. Looks like the solution is to create what I call the PlanetChristmas best-of-breed storefront which becomes a one-stop-shop for the newbie. The vendors are offering small discounts to the PlanetChristmas storefront. The savings will be passed along to the buyer and any profits will be plowed into the PlanetChristmas. Sounds like a win-win-win deal for everyone. Watch for a storefront grand opening in May.

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The PlanetChristmas community has experienced tremendous growth. Our three fundamental rules of family friendly, positive and Christmas centric guide what we say and do. The real key to our community is a willingness to exchange information so others can have better displays. Come join us! http://forums.planetchristmas.com

The PlanetChristmas radio station is still on-line and available to anyone with a fast Internet connection to tap into. Find the details at http://www.planetchristmas.com/PCRadio2007.htm

I'm working with a company called Constant Contact to handle the PlanetChristmas email distribution. There's a new way to register for the newsletter that complies with all government rules and regulations. If you want to remove your name from the list, go to http://www.planetchristmas.com/Newsletters.htm and enter your email address. You'll be given an option to "opt-out" of future mailings. Likewise you'll also be able to remove your address from any future emailings by simply clicking a link at the bottom of the PlanetChristmas emails you receive in the future.

For the record, PlanetChristmas values your privacy and does not share your email address with anyone.

Newsletter Suggestion?

Have a suggestion for a main topic or want to write an article for a future PlanetChristmas newsletter? Send me an email: csmith@planetchristmas.com If you know someone that really should subscribe to your newsletter, send them to http://www.planetchristmas.com/Newsletters.htm

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And finally...

Be sure to stimulate the economy when you get your government stimulus check!

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Next time: look forward to more Christmas decorating tips.

Chuck Smith of PlanetChristmas