How do you wire your haunt?

Good Day, I too started out like that but quickly discovered I was spending a lot of time running wires and trying to hide them for sight. Since I do my stuff in our back yard, I placed plastic EMT in the ground in certain areas to pull control wires and air lines for my props and I ran outlets along my fence with every 16 feet for power to plug in items with the shorter cords. Some of my LED spot lights are 12 vdc and I use them in the remote areas with a gel-cell battery. I guess it comes down to how much stuff you put out but I found out each year it get bigger.
Dave

69-cat said:

Good Day, I too started out like that but quickly discovered I was spending a lot of time running wires and trying to hide them for sight. Since I do my stuff in our back yard, I placed plastic EMT in the ground in certain areas to pull control wires and air lines for my props and I ran outlets along my fence with every 16 feet for power to plug in items with the shorter cords. Some of my LED spot lights are 12 vdc and I use them in the remote areas with a gel-cell battery. I guess it comes down to how much stuff you put out but I found out each year it get bigger.
Dave

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Hi Dave, thanks for the response. Aye, I think I’m going to create power ‘zones’ with adapters/ extension outlets which provide 10 or so power points per zone. But I have absolutely no idea how to do it.
What is EMT? I’m in Scotland, so our hardware names and brands are different from yours in America.
Thanks again dude!

corey872 said:

I would say I typically run something similar to this, but not as neat, tidy and 'up to code'. View attachment 23090

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That does look a bit advanced for me. I can’t imagine a setup like that having any faults whatsoever.

Such a classic movie.

EMT or otherwise known as conduit. It is pipe that is designed for running electrical cables/wires from one point to another. You may have seen this piping in stores and offices and can be seen starting at the breaker panel. I just found it easier for me because I was digging small sections of my yard just to cover up wires or air lines so people could walk over them without tripping.
Dave

I’d vote for 12v DC. Lots of good options for lighting and props. Much more challenging to hurt someone and/or set stuff on fire. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but you’d have to work at it a bit. I use WAGO 221 connectors and something we call landscaping wire on this side of the pond.

Everything I have is LED flood lights or wall warts. So I just use exterior extension cords with the built in 3-outlets on the end. One outlet gets another extension cord plugged in and that leaves 2 outlets for lights/etc. I think I've only ever daisy-chained 3 cords together this way.
The yard is blocked off so no kids walk through it. The outside circuit is a ground fault interrupter circuit. I've never flipped the breaker. I'd say it's reasonable safe. as long as I don't try to plug in a compressor or other high-amperage device.

I have converted over to LED 100% but, some is 120vac and some is 12vdc. Next year is looking like all my lighting will be 12vdc. Until then I use landscape staples to hold down green and or black extension cords. I have 3 different circuits at my house and put one fogger on each circuit and divide up the lights accordingly. my foggers, although are 3k and 5k watts are all 13 amps on 20 amp circuits. Then all the LEDs total combined use less than 3 amps. Next year I am going to use a outdoor low voltage transformer for all my lights. Going to 12 vdc will save me over $100 in electric bills for October. I have a walk through and use chain and crowd stanchions to keep Tot'ers in the path where there are no wires. The one extension cord that crosses the path is a 10' cord buried in a piece of PVC conduit and I dont remove the conduit or cord.

You might consider smart RGB (3-/4-wire) fixtures/pixels/etc. "Smart" means they use a data protocol to communicate, and can often be strung together, daisy chain fashion (usually limited by power delivery and pixel count limits). For example, I use smart RGB floods to illuminate the whole front yard, in 4 zones, daisy chained together (this includes power delivery). I then also use my PC and DAZL software to drive the whole thing in synchrony with music/video/animatronic playback. I typically use DMX-to-SPI type controllers (SP201E, SP901E) to drive them. The power/data wiring is not buried/built in, but I control where people walk.