12 volt light rope CHEAP

[boogiethecat]

I posted this maybe 3-4 years ago- evidently he has a lot it, or more likely, computer geeks don't buy much 12 v light rope!
I got some and it's great...

http://www.centrix-intl.com/details.asp?productid=499

[johns4104]

is it incandesant or LED lights?
How much current does it draw and what is the brightness?

Thanks,
John

[HighTechRedneck]

I don't see any specs anywhere.  But I do see references to "bulbs" so I would guess incandescent as opposed to LED.

Someone else can surely make a better guess, but I would expect the bulbs to be in the 1/8 watt range.  With bulbs appearing to be on about 2" centers, a 30' rope would have about 180 bulbs.  That would make the rope 23 watts.  At 12 volts that would be 2 amps per rope.

[Lin]

I contacted the company.  They are LED, which makes sense with a bulb life rating of 25k hours.  They show shipping a $11.70, but the sales guy said that that is not a per unit shipping price.  Looks like a good deal if they can tell you the shipping in advance.

[boogiethecat]

The ones I bought from them are DEFINITELY NOT LED.
My guess is that the guy has no clue.  I doubt they are anything but incandescent....
FWIW
G

[Lin]

You may be right, but have you heard of incandescent bulbs with a 25k hour life?

[bruceknee]

I bought some also. A couple of them had a 25 hour life, others are working fine. sure cheap enough if you get a spare and they are easy to get to to replace

[WEC4104]

I went poking around to see if I could find the manufacurer's specs on the stuff. It looks like it was a product of the JD Russell Company, a manufacturer of landscaping products.  They propose using the rope lighting with some of their landscape edging products to light up sidewalks, etc.  There is absolutely no mention of the term "LED" in any of their product info.
http://www.jdrussellco.com/etmain.htm

[boogiethecat]

Yeah, actually 25000 hour life isn't uncommon for tiny bulbs like that.  Life of an incandescent doubles for every volt less than their rating that you run them on, and it's a standard industry practice to use a higher voltage rated bulb on lower voltages to get very long life. 

So just to satisfy the skeptics, I went out into my pile and dug up a roll of these that I bought years ago... they are the same manufacturer, same part number, same hour rating and DEFINITELY made with little  tiny light bulbs with filaments.  NOT Leds. 

So there you are...

Cheers
G