Ah yes, I spaced the red part out completely. Red LED's are more efficient
and less expensive than white. Sorry, no experience with the rope lighting.

"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
oups.com...
Forced, again, to do the web bit, since I'm on the boat, surfing on
wifi (more on that topic in another post), and not able to obtain
newsgroups, so apologies if there's all my stuff quoted...

Johnnh said:

"Skip, those are interesting comments about fluorescents. My
experience has
been that florescent lights beat LED hands down in both light output
per
dollar and light output per watt. "

Interesting you should say that. I just finished hanging the 4' - 40
watt mentioned in the original, about the same amp as a single
incadescent lamp, and the workshop/walkthrough is bathed in light -
about 4000 design lumens (3150 with 32 watt bulb). At 70bux, shipped,
it beats West and any other marine supplier for marine lighting to
achieve that luminescence.

I have no doubt, after using the smaller 2-bulb fixture (again, made by
Trim-Lite, presumed not a marine supplier, the manufacturer of the
4-foot) in the engine room, supplemented by another of the same taken
from the walkthrough/workshop when it seemed not to work (voltage to
it, and the port turned out to be controlled by one of the mystery
breakers in the control panel), that fluorescents put out a lot of
light (these each about 1750DL) at a relatively low wattage. However,
the ones which might fit in small places don't make much light (pencil
bulbs, e.g.). The red/white fixture of about 3" width, taken out of
the galley as dead, put out a negligible amount of light, and the red,
diminished by the red sleeve, even less, when it was working. West
wants 115 for the thin-lite version of it; right now I can't put my
hands on the guest (smaller) but it was about 75bux.

So, I'm in a quandary as to inexpensive red lighting, as well as
large-area, low-level lighting. Covering a large area with low-level
red light is very challenging in wiring, let alone figuring out how to
do it economically in electrical budget terms - thus the LED interest.

For task lighting in the galley, I'm inclined to get another Thin-lite
small fixture, again from the van supply place - though their prices
aren't notably less than Worst, so perhaps, with a Port Supply, I might
do better - it would make the 1-2-off dual incandescent I have over the
sink look dull.

However, I don't know of any fixtures which put out a significant
amount of light (maybe the LEDs don't, either! - I'm still looking!) at
well under an amp, and flourescents (at least if bought from marine
sources) are pretty pricey, still. Given a willingness to pay the
price, I can get bright. I can't get large-area red, low level,
though...

So, back to the question: Anyone played with, or, better, installed,
12V rope lighting?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip and Lydia, still trying to get floated before next year (shoulder
op will mess it up, though!)