Looking for advice on EL-wire christmas lights.

[FuzzyDunlop]

does anyone have experience with putting up EL-wire as christmas lights? How difficult was it and how durable is the wire? How does it hold up with extreme temperature? And is it something that could be left on the house year round and go relatively unnoticed in the summer?

And I know, I know, Christmas is TWO MONTHS away. But I want to do this before the snow starts blowing here, and that could be anyday now.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

No such thing. did you mean LED lights in a clear tube? You should never leave rubber, or plastic products outside year round, especially electrical.
I have a couple of 24 volt 18" long pieces of el wire in my clear sided computer case, they require some sort of ballast.

 

[Red Squirrel]

No such thing. did you mean LED lights in a clear tube? You should never leave rubber, or plastic products outside year round, especially electrical.
I have a couple of 24 volt 18" long pieces of el wire in my clear sided computer case, they require some sort of ballast.

Think he means this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire

I've seen it sold for computer modding and stuff too. Pretty neat stuff, never played with it myself.

One of these days I want to experiment with this stuff:

https://www.adafruit.com/products/306

Imagine the cool stuff you could do with that. I'd leave it up all year round and just have different programs for it for different seasons. Heck just use it for general purpose lighting when there are no special occasions. Though not sure if it's UV resistant... does not mention anything about that, it just says weatherproof. Guess if you have it under the soffit it will never see sun.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

No such thing. did you mean LED lights in a clear tube? You should never leave rubber, or plastic products outside year round, especially electrical.
I have a couple of 24 volt 18" long pieces of el wire in my clear sided computer case, they require some sort of ballast.

Why do you say that? We recently bought some "Indoor/Outdoor" LED lights that we were planning on putting around our garden outside. It seems to be standard LED lights but wrapped in rubber to keep water-proof. Is that a bad idea?

 

[deadlyapp]

Why do you say that? We recently bought some "Indoor/Outdoor" LED lights that we were planning on putting around our garden outside. It seems to be standard LED lights but wrapped in rubber to keep water-proof. Is that a bad idea?

I think he's worried that the UV rays will damage them, but you can get UV stabilized plastic that doesn't get affected as much. If you have an outdoor rated fixture, then I suspect you're fine, other than extreme cold or extreme heat.

 

[Pulsar]

Electroluminescent wire is common - they have kits to put on bikes that are weather proof. The real question is how well it will hold up over seasonal exposure though - even the ones for bikes aren't meant for year round sun exposure.