Rope Lighting

By Paul Bianchina

Sometimes there is a need to bring a feature of your home into focus with subtle lighting. Whether you want to highlight your stair case or just don’t want heavy fixtures and long cords stretching across the room, give Rope Lighting some consideration.

"Rope light" is the generic term for any of a variety of accent lights manufactured in long tubes rather than as individual fixtures. A typical rope light consists of numerous 1/2 watt micro-bulbs, spaced about one inch apart and housed in a clear or colored flexible PVC resin tube. Both 120 volt and 12 volt versions are available, and the lights are rated for both indoor and outdoor use.

The tiny bulbs are maintenance free, and are not intended for replacement. Most of the rope lights are rated for about 25,000 hours of use before they fail -- if you had them on for an average of 4 hours every day, that translates into about 17 years of life. At 1/2 watt each and spaced 1 inch apart, a typical rope light will generate approximately 6 watts per foot (it would take about 10 feet of rope light to equal the energy usage of one 60-watt light bulb). The tube gets only slightly warm to the touch, and does not present a burn danger.

The lights can be installed just about anywhere your imagination can think up. Indoors, you can use them along mantles and shelves, around bookcases, around or inside cabinets, inside dark closets, around doors and windows, along the edge of a ceiling or a chair rail molding, or to light up staircases or individual steps. Outdoors, they're beautiful around decks and deck railings, along paths, as safety lighting for steps, or as architectural or landscaping accent lights in any of a variety of areas.

What's Available

You can purchase rope lights in a number of different ways. The easiest is probably to purchase a complete kit, which typically includes a 30- to 50-foot long coil of lights, a 120 volt power cord connector, and a handful of clips for securing the ropes in place. Splice fittings are also included for connecting two or more ropes together.

You can also purchase all of the pieces individually. Coils of lights are available in lengths of up to about 150 feet, along with all of the splice and power cord fittings, to allow you to make up just about whatever length and shape you're looking for.

Rope lights also come in a variety of different colored tubes -- clear, green, red, orange, purple, yellow, blue, and pink -- and you can splice different colors together if desired. While the most common version of the rope light is steady illumination, there are also versions blink at different rates and in difference sequences, as well as ones that "chase" each other.

Installation

Rope lights are very easy to install. For the 110-volt version, a power cord connector is used at one end of the rope to create a power connection between the rope and any standard household outlet. Splice connectors -- which are either internal (invisible) or external (white plastic) are used to connect the ropes together end to end, up to a maximum of about 150 feet on one power cord. The ropes are marked at regular intervals -- usually every 18" -- and they can be cut at these points with scissors if desired. For outdoor use, most manufacturers recommend that the joints be sealed with a non-acidic silicone glue.

The 12-volt version is essentially the same, but utilizes low-voltage bulbs and a 12-volt transformer. You cannot splice 12-volt and 110-volt ropes together.

The ropes are held in place in any of a variety of ways. There are small plastic clips available that can be nailed or glued in place, then the rope snaps into the clips. There are also plastic channels in clear or colors that hold the entire length of rope more rigidly, as well as metal reflecting channels in gold and silver that enhance and reflect the light from the rope.

Rope lights are available from many lighting stores, electrical retailers, and home centers, and will come with complete installation instructions. Be sure that all lights and components are UL-listed, and if you have any questions about proper installation or safe use, be sure and check with the manufacturer or a licensed electrician.

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