How much power does it take?

A common question is how much power does it?

If the lights were at 100% full power it will be around 1000 watts (it was around 970 when I last measured but I've added few since).

However we don't actually set the intensity at 100%, it's at 50% and not surprisingly the power consumption is cut in half to around 500 watts or the equivalent of 5 100 watt bulbs. Also when the lights are "dancing" they consume even less since some lights are off or dimmed.

The lights are on about 6 hours a day to they consume roughly 3 kWh. According to http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html the average US electricity cost is a little over 12 cents/kWh. This means on average the lights cost less than $12/month to operate. My actual costs are hard to calculate because we have solar electric system and are using time of use (TOU) net metering.