LED Rope Light

 DRSA brings in only the highest quality LED ROPE LIGHT.  Our LED Rope Light is vigorously tested in house and must pass certain goals.  Once these stringent requirements (some lights are left to run for months and sometimes years on our tech bench).  This process has led us to brining in only the highest quality LED Rope Light.

The primary use for LED Rope Light is as a decorative lighting fixture.  Rope light is still the same as when it was first produced (tiny incandescent bulbs linked together and encased in a PVC (poly vinyl chloride) jacket.  With newer LED technology rope light has evolved and become the go to for achieving brilliant lighting designs on a lesser budget.  The monetary advantage versus typical lighting cost makes LED Rope Light the go to for many lighting projects.  The fact that it is indoor and outdoor applicable also makes it extremely flexible when designing lighting projects.

What is your main prerogative when choosing the proper rope light for your lighting design project?  LED or Incandescent?  There really is no proper choice, it depends on the size and scope of your lighting demands.

LED ROPE LIGHTS have bulbs or lamps that come with many distinct colors thus the lamps themselves are what produce the actual color.  Whereas the incandescent rope lights generally bulbs that have a filter applied around the bulb.  So when your LED Rope Light is turned off or not powered it looks colorless. The incandescent bulb when not powered or in the off position will still retain the color of the bulb.  Some designers prefer a clear look and some use the color to actually blend in.  Again it depends on what your desired lighting requirement are?
 
Pretty much every knows the rules about LED & power consumption.  It is really not a fair fight and LED always comes out on top.  LED Rope Lights require far less energy consumption versus incandescent rope light.  The incandescent bulbs will produce a relatively greater amount of heat opposed to the cool LED.  A general rule of thumb for LED Rope lights and power consumption is about 1 watt per foot.   Industry averages for Incandescent come in around 3 watts per foot.
  
Of course the big kicker is price.  LED Rope Light does come with a larger price tag than incandescent rope light.  You don’t really need to get out your calculators to find out where the saving come.  A rule of thumb for LED Rope Light is 100,000 hour lifetime.  Incandescent is lucky to cross the 20,000 hour threshold.

For those projects that are smaller in nature around the house or backyard.  Incandescent can be the obvious choice.  Projects on a larger scale like restaurants, shopping centers, building, parks, etc are better suited to absorb the upfront cost of LED.  It won’t be long before LED is the only choice.  Some states and local municipalities have mandated laws to implement LED and not allow incandescent lighting.

Fort Lauderdale Marine Lighting

DRSA Boat Show Dates 2015-16

DRSA boat Show dates.

Crestron Lighting for Marine & Boats

DRSA Crestron Lighting for boats.

Lopolight

Let's ponder a situation for a moment.  While embarking on a trek across the Gulf Stream from the Bahamas to South Florida (Jupiter Inlet) after a month long fishing and diving trip.  The last thing on your mind as you go over your checklist (extra batteries, extra props, extra fuel pumps, extra filters, etc...).  Little did we know how important our extra Lopolight ( LED Navigation Light ) that came with boat was going to turn out to be the most important piece of nautical equipment we had stowed on the boat?  

  

About an hour into our return trip home our vessel encountered rough weather.  Nothing out of the extraordinary that we haven’t seen before.  That is until our mast was struck by lightning.  At that moment everything starts to happen in slow motion.  The sparks flying out of the top of the mast and then the echoing boom / explosion.  All power was lost and not restored until re-powering the generator.  At this point everything comes back on except our nav lights.

                                                                                                                                                  

We now find ourselves bobbing around in a major international shipping lane with zero visibility to other vessels.  On the horizon at night all you can see are the Navigation Lights of major cruise liners and shipping freighters bearing down on you.  Dodging one goliath vessel after another is not much fun when in a slower and much smaller boat.

Remember at top speed our Gulfstar Sailboat might get 11 / 12 knots without sail power.  As soon as we get around one boat another appears out of nowhere.   These freighters average 1000 feet so they were running right on top of our little 62 foot sailboat without ever seeing us.  A few times crew members on the aft sections of these freighters would yell at us about our not having a nav light
amongst other choice boating tips.

Suddenly a lightbulb goes off in my head.  I remember when purchasing the boat, the salesman kept mentioning these new LED Lopolights over and over.  Like this was going to be the tipping point in a half million dollar boat sale.  Immediately I start rummaging through cabinets looking for this Lopolight Light.  Suddenly the round silver tin container with the words LED Navigation Lights appears.  At the same time the sound of a large Cruise Liner was blasting its air horn rattling and shaking our poor little boat.  As I pop my head out of hatch and wonder how we narrowly avoided another collision while gazing at this huge cruise ship.

Immediately we rigged the light to one of our spare batteries and displayed it right in front of the pilot house and helm area.  Mounting on the mast at night while dodging 1000 foot freighters was not an option.  As soon as we lit this beautiful Lopolight you could see other vessels recognize us and alter their courses to not run us over.

Let’s go back to the original scenario – a boat traversing one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.   Doing this sans Navigation Light was easily one of the most harrowing experiences of my life.  Having a spare Navigation Light was easily the luckiest single event I can recall in my lifetime.

To this day – that tin coffee can package that the lopolight came in sits on my desk at home.  Every time my brother visits and walks by – he picks it up and kisses it.

 

Thanks Lopolight.

Gulfstar 62 -  "Barmad"

Marine Lighting Ft Lauderdale

Ft Lauderdale Marine Lighting

DRSA will be closed July 3rd