What is an Outdoor Rope Light?
Posted By Houston Decorator on June 20, 2010
You may be wondering what an outdoor rope light is. It is simply a series of lights encased in a tough plastic hosing or tube in an incredibly vast array of colors. The tube also has wiring inside that electrically connects the lights together. Power is sent through the wiring to energize the lights and you now have a rope light.
The truly amazing thing about rope lighting is the fact that it is incredibly flexible. It can be bent to almost any angle. You can use it to outline odd or unusual shapes to add color or lighting highlights. Unlike normal string lights, rope lights are more streamlined and in general, easier to install.
You get two choices of type of bulbs, incandescent and led. The incandescent bulbs are essentially tiny versions of larger ones that are used in typical outdoor Christmas light strings. These bulbs use a filament wire that has a current of electricity passed through it. The resistance of the wire to the passing current of electricity causes the wire to glow.
Led, or light emitting diode, type of lights use special electronic components called diodes. Like bulbs, these diodes glow when current passes through them. Unlike bulbs, they don’t use a filament wire to do that. The diode itself produces the light.
Rope lights come in two basic wiring schemes, two wire and three wire. The two wire variety is usually used for solid color runs or flashing lights. The three wire is used when special effects are desired such as chasing lights.
Rope lighting is easy to install just about anywhere with the right clips or tracks. Unlike string lights, rope lights can be laid out in a straight line without the usual drooping and sagging. This allows you to be very creative in using these lights.
With typical string lights, you are pretty much stuck with the lengths that are available. So you may find yourself coming up short or having too many lights. That is when you either buy an extra string and have to hide the excess. Or you end up scrapping whatever design you were trying to make. Fortunately, outdoor rope light can be cut, within reason, to the size that you need. This allows you to be much more exact in laying out the lights in the pattern that you want.
Using outdoor rope light is a great way to add that something extra to your yard or patio. With it’s ease of installation, flexibility and color choices you really can’t go wrong.
Using outdoor rope lights can be a great way to that extra something to your patio.See what other uses there are for outdoor rope lights and patio string lights at writer and researcher Dave Hendry’s site Patio String Lights.us
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