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Rope light


Jeffery m

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You can make  argument for either 120v or 12v led rope from an electric cost savings.  I haven't bought any rope light for 3 years and at that time, led rppe was more expensive than incadenscent rope.  If that's still the case, then it's it's a matter of payback...highter cost versus electric savings. 

I wouldn't fall into the trap that leds last  20,000 hours to justify purchase.  I've been using leds in the landscape and house for a number of years and have found what fails, is the "other' circuitry in bulbs...wires, drivers and such.  So I'm real careful in how much I pay for househould leds..may never recoupe the purchase cost in electric savings. 

 

From a look and fell in a display, don't know that there is a "best" option.  One negative on led rope is the much longer cut length between sections.  Incandescent can be at low at 18", led can be pushing 4ft.  

From a white color perpective, do need to be careful in mixing different white temps...warm, true/daylight and cool whites.  

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I have singing monsters made with incandescent rope light.  I get it here...

http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/p/2-Wire-12-inch-13mm-Clear-Rope-Light-150ft-UL-Listed--14940.htm?s=g&camp=pla-ropelight&med=pla&gclid=CjwKEAjwlq24BRDMjdK7g8mD6BASJABBl8n3ZzzuFR_7mTc1wtSo57Urrj94B2C3MMvSSuU1gq48sRoCo7Hw_wcB#customer-reviews 

A roll of 150 foot costs around $80 and usually anything over $100 ships free

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For 3 3ft x 3ft and 1 4ft x 4ft pumkin faces w/o outlines, I used about 200ft of rope light.

 

I recommend mend using 3/8" for tighter curves.

I bought all my rope from 1000bulbs. quite a variet of 3/8 and 1/2 rope.   I used the "prearl white" color which makes for good light diffusing.

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120v led rope is my choice.  I get my rope from christmasleds because they are the only ones who sell 19-20" cuttable led rope.   

I have 8 faces using yellow, orange, green and pure white. 4+ years old and still going strong.

 

http://www.christmas-leds.com/productinfo_v3.aspx?productid=LED-38-150FT-RP-MET

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Check out my 2014 videos on my website. That was primarily 120v rope light.
I will share this key factor: Rope light, in comparison to RGB ribbons, looked awful on our house. The way they are shipped warps the rope light and it's not as easy to use, thought it could be cheaper if you buy in bulk. The other negative I have is that if you use custom lengths (meaning if you buy a spool and end up cutting chunks off), you're going to have trouble making the custom plugs. It was a disaster, so much so that we won't even use it this December.

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On 3/4/2017 at 2:10 PM, lightingnewb said:

Check out my 2014 videos on my website. That was primarily 120v rope light.
I will share this key factor: Rope light, in comparison to RGB ribbons, looked awful on our house. The way they are shipped warps the rope light and it's not as easy to use, thought it could be cheaper if you buy in bulk. The other negative I have is that if you use custom lengths (meaning if you buy a spool and end up cutting chunks off), you're going to have trouble making the custom plugs. It was a disaster, so much so that we won't even use it this December.

Had that same experience, scrapped my Halloween singing pumpkins for that very reason.  Going pixels and custom faces by Boscoyo Studios.

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Other than blue mini lights, I can't think of a single thing that has disappointed more people than rope light.  It just rips out your guts and feeds them to the cat.

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3 minutes ago, George Simmons said:

Other than blue mini lights, I can't think of a single thing that has disappointed more people than rope light.  It just rips out your guts and feeds them to the cat.

what he said!!  My first year I used it for my mega tree, had random 18" sections that burned out after a few weeks.  Never again.

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4 hours ago, caniac said:

what he said!!  My first year I used it for my mega tree, had random 18" sections that burned out after a few weeks.  Never again.

I've been progressively working my way out of rope light. The only reason I used it all was because it was cheap, and for the first year, that was a big deal. Considering how much we had to tackle in one year, using rope light seemed most logical. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and we could tell by the end of the year that it was time to make our sweet, sweet departure from rope light and turn to much more enticing and fun lighting arrangements (RGBs). I couldn't be happier that I made the switch. Not only is it super easy to install year-to-year, the ribbon is so much cleaner on the house! Straight lines and tight 90* corners as compared to wavy, tacky, and unprofessional attempts to try to look nice.

I think we can safely say that rope light was a big mistake and a learning curve we all learned the hard way, but we're glad we had to learn anyways.

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Same thing here. Used 12v LED rope light on my tree rings and roses until I installed some RGB strips and realized how bad the light rope looked. Ripped it out and replaced with RGB strips and would never go back. I am using some of the rope light for work lights in my data cabinet, attic, and columns (where no one ever sees them).


Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android

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I only use the rope on my singing faces.

I tiewrap them in the correct orientation....facing the audience.

I create custom plugs using the technique shown on christmasleds website.  Basically solder the ends of your wire...shove them in the conductor channels...silicone and heatshrink it up and off you go.  4 years and no problems.

For my faces I chose rope over bulbs for one reason....it looks better IMHO.

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8 hours ago, sax said:

I only use the rope on my singing faces.

I tiewrap them in the correct orientation....facing the audience.

I create custom plugs using the technique shown on christmasleds website.  Basically solder the ends of your wire...shove them in the conductor channels...silicone and heatshrink it up and off you go.  4 years and no problems.

For my faces I chose rope over bulbs for one reason....it looks better IMHO.

My plan this year includes singing faces and I can't see any reason to use anything other than rope light.  I just wonder where the best and most cost effective solution will come from. 

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I use rope light for my Halloween monster faces ( which I think look better for Halloween ) and dumb nodes for my Christmas faces. I have no problems with either one. It's just the preference of the person's display. 

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With all the light type option now available, I would agree that rope has limited use now.  I still believe it's the best looking option for  singing faces/trees.  IMO, just provides for a cleaner/sharper outline effect than pixels/bulbs. 

 

So we all don't agree that was a mistake. :)

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I also need to replace the warm white, not so bright rope lights on my tree topper stars that I got from Christmaslightshow.com..  The warm white just doesn't stand out enough..

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On 3/11/2017 at 8:58 AM, plasmadrive said:

I also need to replace the warm white, not so bright rope lights on my tree topper stars that I got from Christmaslightshow.com..  The warm white just doesn't stand out enough..

It looks more yellow-ish, doesn't it? Like a bright yellow? Either way, I wasn't too fond of warm white either. Cool white seems to be brighter and nicer looking.

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Yes, they are more to the "yellowish" side.  They are good for some applications but with the stars they are just too dim for me.  Now that I am adding so many pixels this year, I need my stars to "Pop".  That is why the CW change out

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