Outdoor Projectors – Don’t Be *THAT* House
Outdoor projectors are an easy, inexpensive, and quick way to not be *that* house this holiday season.
As the holiday gets closer and closer, the fact that I haven’t gotten around to putting any decorations or lights up outside is becoming more and more apparent. The neighborhood isn’t aggressive about it, but I feel a subtle leer and cold shoulder sometimes from those with more outwardly festive houses. With every day that passed, I was becoming more and more THAT house – the ones who don’t put anything out for the holidays.
Holiday Light Conundrum
The light strings I’ve had for years are a mess. They’re taped together, sort of, bulbs are broken, whole sections of strings are dead. I don’t want to buy all new lights until they go on sale after the holidays, which of course is no time to be putting them up. I needed a solution. And then I found it.
Outdoor Projectors! I’ve seen a few of them around the neighborhood. They’re cool, of course, tech is so cool after all. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy any of these menial ones. I had a cooler idea for holiday outdoor projectors, but I won’t be able to make such things in time for this year. I started to look more seriously at the simple outdoor projectors, and decided to give it a go. Here’s what happened.
Outdoor Projectors are the Solution
I bought a kit that comes with several different patterns on three separate discs. There’s a Christmas themed disc, a Halloween themed disc, and general purpose celebration disc. I’m set for life on discs now, everything is covered. In addition to the discs, there’s a remote control that I think uses Bluetooth, which is so cool! There’s the power supply and mounting stake for anchoring the projector into the ground.
You plug the unit in, and it powers on immediately. You press the Power button on the remote, and it pairs with the projector. If you have multiple outdoor projectors, you plug them all in, then press the power button on the remote and it pairs with them all. So cool – you could have your house surrounded with outdoor projectors and use one remote!
The discs are super easy to change. You simply unscrew the bezel around the lens (turn the unit off first though, even unplug it). The bezel and lens come off easily. The disc is right there, and is held in place with a weak magnet, so there’s no prying to get it out. That’s a good thing because the discs are very fragile and you don’t want to be prying on them. You pop one disc out, and hold the next one up in the general position it should be, and the magnet pops it into place. Replace the lens, which is keyed so it only fits in the right way, tighten the bezel back on, and you’re done. Mine had the right disc in it to begin with, but I swapped them all out because I wanted to see them all anyway. You know you will too.
Installation is a Snap
All that’s left to “install” the projector is to stake it into the ground, run the cord, and plug it in. Unfortunately, the stake has a screw protruding from the top of it to screw into the outdoor projector’s base. I wish the screw were in the projector base, and the hole in the stake. That way you could use a hammer (OK, I was going to use a rock) to get the stake in. As luck would have it, it just rained, so the stake went in easily. If the ground is frozen where you live, well, you’re going to have to figure that out.
Most all of the outdoor projectors have timer modes built in. You can set them up to be on for 2 hours / off for 22 hours, on for 4 hours / off for 20 hours, on for 6 hours / off for 18 hours, or on for 8 hours / off for 16 hours. You can turn them on and off manually as well, of course.
There is also a speed control on the remote. It controls the speed with which all the little patterns fly around the walls, house, whatever (but be safe – these are lasers). You can even freeze the pattern in one spot if you find a point in the cycle that suits you.
Don’t be THAT House
So, including the time it took to fetch an extension cord from the garage and run it through the fence, I probably invested 15 to 20 minutes in getting some holiday lights put up outside the house. I was reluctant, but now that I’ve tried it, outdoor projectors are definitely worth buying. They’re reasonably priced, super-simple to set up, and give you a lot of show for not a lot of dough.
Next year maybe I’ll have had time to work on my own ideas for outdoor projectors. I’ll be sure to share them here if I do.
In the meantime, check out what’s available this year below. Don’t be THAT house – get one (or two).
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