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General Opinions on LED Rope lights vs String lights


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The application i am deciding on is around my garage door, front door and living room window which all face the street. the light location is about 40ft from the street. Ive been looking at the sale here http://www.holiday-light-express.com/ and using the C6 string lights.

 

But i thought i would check with you guys/gals and see if you would go the rope or string route. i tend to see mixed reactions on the rope and thought i would throw the question out. this is my first year, currently i don't have any rope lights, all LED string lights.

 

Thoughts, advice and feedback are much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

-Chad

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hi Chad! i used l.e.d rope light around my garage doors last year. red color. ( they also face the street; about 100' from roadway) i used the vertical spacing of bulbs,

 

didn't notice much during the shows in person; but in videos you can see where they are very directional . should have probably used the horazontal spacing to throw a

 

more uniform band of light. check out some of my videos on  youtube at : Countryman family lights. then you can see what i mean. hope this helps. i'd link it but don't

 

know how. :)

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hi Chad! i used l.e.d rope light around my garage doors last year. red color. ( they also face the street; about 100' from roadway) i used the vertical spacing of bulbs,

 

didn't notice much during the shows in person; but in videos you can see where they are very directional . should have probably used the horazontal spacing to throw a

 

more uniform band of light. check out some of my videos on  youtube at : Countryman family lights. then you can see what i mean. hope this helps. i'd link it but don't

 

know how. :)

Thanks Joe,

I didn't know there was a difference, I'm going to have to look into this. Thanks for sharing you thoughts and your vids.

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Thanks Joe,

I didn't know there was a difference, I'm going to have to look into this. Thanks for sharing you thoughts and your vids.

Joe, can you explain more in detail the difference of the horizontal vs vertical spacing?

Thanks

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Chad ....

 

It depends on what you are using them for.

 

I used LED rope light for the 5 stars on my roof, as well as for my animated face ... worked very well.

 

You can see them in this video.

 

 

Dave

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I use c-7 in those areas, got 12inch spacing on wiring. first year 2 colors every 6 inches, the next year 2 more colors so now I have a bulb aprox every 3 inches with 4 different colors.

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chad- um if you go to a site called: www.birddoddistributing.com then look up ropelights, and click on it like you wanna check it out you will see what i mean.  its

 

basically the bulbs in the rope light face "up" and the light flows out of the tube, then the horazontal is more of an even glow.like i said in person it didn't really show up

 

much but then again i'am the biggest critic of my light show. :)

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Just my 2 cents....

I've been working with both LED , RGB strips and LED christmas lights as well as rope lights and stage systems. I really do find that the Dumb LED is perfect for lining a house or deck unless you want the intelligent pixels- Lots of Channels.

The Nice part about the dumb RGB is that it is low voltage, so one does not max out the circuits faster. I believe (and correct me if I am wrong please) that most rope lights are standard AC current. ;)

 

Cheers!

 

Kip

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chad- um if you go to a site called: www.birddoddistributing.com then look up ropelights, and click on it like you wanna check it out you will see what i mean.  its

 

basically the bulbs in the rope light face "up" and the light flows out of the tube, then the horazontal is more of an even glow.like i said in person it didn't really show up

 

much but then again i'am the biggest critic of my light show. :)

Ok..I got it. Ya I imagine not a major factor. Thanks for breaking it down.

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Just my 2 cents....

I've been working with both LED , RGB strips and LED christmas lights as well as rope lights and stage systems. I really do find that the Dumb LED is perfect for lining a house or deck unless you want the intelligent pixels- Lots of Channels.

The Nice part about the dumb RGB is that it is low voltage, so one does not max out the circuits faster. I believe (and correct me if I am wrong please) that most rope lights are standard AC current. ;)

 

Cheers!

 

Kip

Kip, not sure on the AC current for the ropes but sounds right. Do you have a link for dumb LED/ RGB so I could look into them?

I appreciate your feed back

Chad

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Chad ....

 

It depends on what you are using them for.

 

I used LED rope light for the 5 stars on my roof, as well as for my animated face ... worked very well.

 

You can see them in this video.

 

 

Dave

Dave,

 

I finally watched your video... really cool. your face turned out awesome. quick question, are your lights that are on the house.. roof, windows,etc... CCR?

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You can get a nice straight line with either one, it just takes a little more effort with mini lights. Me, I prefer rope light. For years I kept "re-stringing" all my reindeer because  it was cheaper. Finally I decided to rope light one instead to see how it looked. MUCH BETTER. Like someone else said here, it depends on what you are using them for. It also uses a little more amperage so that can be an issue. Also cost is a big factor too.

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