how long do lights in costumes last?
part of my series of commonly asked questions and answers:
Q: What is the life of these lights? How many hours do these costumes last? If one light burns out, does the whole thing go out? Is it easy to replace a light?
A: With the proper care, many of my clients continue to enjoy their lighted costumes for several years. The LED lights themselves do not burn out like regular incandescent light bulbs (the type used in xmas tree lights, for example), and the connections are permanent, rather than replaceable. LEDs have a life expectancy of 100,000 to 300,000 hours, which is much longer than needed for a typical piece of clothing. If you used it 10 hours a day, every day, that would still be less than 4,000 hours of use in a year.
The durability of flexible electronics continues to improve, but they are still more fragile than the types of electronics that are protected by plastic boxes. The LEDs are vulnerable to excessive forces (they can be crushed), and while they do resist some moisture, they can become corroded after repeated exposure to sweat and/or washing. When a light does go out, it is most likely due to a mechanical failure, such as a broken/corroded LED lead or a broken wire. We try to find the right balance between making the wire connections as robust as possible, but without being too bulky, so that the fabric parts and electronic parts will have about the same lifetime.
The circuits are designed to be redundant, so that one breakage will not make the whole outfit go dark, unless that wire happens to be part of the power supply or the on/off switch.
The lights are not intended to be replaced by the end user, but if they are damaged somehow, they are usually repairable (if you can send the garment back to us).
The lifetime of EL wire is an entirely different story --- the half life of the glowing phosphor material in the wire (the time until the brightness fades by half) is typically between 3000 and 5000 hours of active glowing time. This is fine for many applications, but is something to consider if you need your garment to be lit for a particularly long time.
Q: What is the life of these lights? How many hours do these costumes last? If one light burns out, does the whole thing go out? Is it easy to replace a light?
A: With the proper care, many of my clients continue to enjoy their lighted costumes for several years. The LED lights themselves do not burn out like regular incandescent light bulbs (the type used in xmas tree lights, for example), and the connections are permanent, rather than replaceable. LEDs have a life expectancy of 100,000 to 300,000 hours, which is much longer than needed for a typical piece of clothing. If you used it 10 hours a day, every day, that would still be less than 4,000 hours of use in a year.
The durability of flexible electronics continues to improve, but they are still more fragile than the types of electronics that are protected by plastic boxes. The LEDs are vulnerable to excessive forces (they can be crushed), and while they do resist some moisture, they can become corroded after repeated exposure to sweat and/or washing. When a light does go out, it is most likely due to a mechanical failure, such as a broken/corroded LED lead or a broken wire. We try to find the right balance between making the wire connections as robust as possible, but without being too bulky, so that the fabric parts and electronic parts will have about the same lifetime.
The circuits are designed to be redundant, so that one breakage will not make the whole outfit go dark, unless that wire happens to be part of the power supply or the on/off switch.
The lights are not intended to be replaced by the end user, but if they are damaged somehow, they are usually repairable (if you can send the garment back to us).
The lifetime of EL wire is an entirely different story --- the half life of the glowing phosphor material in the wire (the time until the brightness fades by half) is typically between 3000 and 5000 hours of active glowing time. This is fine for many applications, but is something to consider if you need your garment to be lit for a particularly long time.
posted by Janet Hansen at 12:14 AM
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