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Dinosaur
Christmas decorations question.
This could possibly go in the technical section, but it's not disco related, so this will do.
We have a small tree in the garden, which we light each year. It's a really awkward flowering cherry, and threading the standard strings of lights through it each year is a real struggle, as they snag everywhere on twigs. So, I'm looking at rope lights, as they will be sooo much easier to install.
The simple question is this- filament or LED? Which lasts longer, and is more resistant to handling?
Filament are significantly cheaper, but if they only last half as long, it's not a saving.
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Originally Posted by
Imagine
How about some nice simple uplighting instead
Indeed. Much more sophisticated.
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Dinosaur
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Originally Posted by
Excalibur
Heaven forfend, dear boy, heaven forfend.
You've not met my wife, have you? Her ideal Christmas lighting scenario would look a lot like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
And she's married to a DJ???? Surely she's aware that these days less is more
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Originally Posted by
Excalibur
And the results for the uplighting trial are in.
She Who Must Be Obeyed scored it nil points.
In all honesty, partly due to the spread of the tree, it was just too understated.
Ah well, back to the drawing board.
Perhaps a call to a certain Cumbrian retailer May reap dividends,the nice chap may just have a small stock of white rope lights.....
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Originally Posted by
Excalibur
This could possibly go in the technical section, but it's not disco related, so this will do.
We have a small tree in the garden, which we light each year. It's a really awkward flowering cherry, and threading the standard strings of lights through it each year is a real struggle, as they snag everywhere on twigs. So, I'm looking at rope lights, as they will be sooo much easier to install.
The simple question is this- filament or LED? Which lasts longer, and is more resistant to handling?
Filament are significantly cheaper, but if they only last half as long, it's not a saving.
Filament lamps always look better than LED IMHO, so would win if they're cheaper regardless.
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I'm going to chip in, as someone who does a lot of outdoor lighting (Google 'Powis Castle Illuminated Garden' for an example...).
I can understand your wife's requirement for a bit of Christmas bling and let's face it we're all quite fond of over the top Christmas lights and a bit of naffness, even if we won't admit it in public. So yes, if you've used fairly lights previously you're unlikely to be able to get away with being lazy and just trying to use a flood on it.
To attempt to answer your original question, I'd suggest going for LED rather than filament. Of course it depends on the type as to how long they'll last etc, but generally I'd expect the LED ones to last longer, use less power and not get warm. I've only got 4 x 45m lengths of rope light (2 of which have never been used but 2 have done a reasonable number of jobs over the last 7 years of so and are still going fine). As regards to the look, from more than about 50cm away they look the same, just depending on what colour LEDs you get (you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference between warm white LEDs and filament lamps).
However, be wary that rope light is significantly heavier than fairy lights, so you'll probably need to get it further into the tree rather than hanging it on the ends of the twigs.
Those RGB LED floods you linked to (or any number of vaguely similar ones) really aren't very bright and have a very wide beam spread so don't throw the light very far at all. They actually work quite nicely for some small bushes with a wide spread, such as grasses etc but certainly don't bother trying to light anything with much foliage on with them.
I've learnt that lighting plants really is quite an art and even now I can have a reasonable guess in daylight but I always need to do a lot of the work at night and quite a lot is still trial and error. A small change in the position or angle of a light can make a big difference.
Always worth looking at more than one light source, so maybe a coloured flood of some form combined with fairy lights, or 2 different colours from different directions etc.
Last edited by stormproductions; 06-12-2016 at 11:36 AM.
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Dinosaur
Thank you one and all for your advice, much appreciated, and all well reasoned points.
For various reasons I've just ordered a filament one, mainly because it flashes/ twinkles/chases, and is cheaper. As long as it does this year that will do.
After that we'll reappraise the situation.
The tree will definitely support it, no question, but definitely a point to consider. I'll keep you posted.
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