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
4 Comments:
Yes, these are also important points to mention. You'll get a lot more life out of your wearable electronics if you use a reasonable amount of care when you store them and transport them. I usually put my lighted bras in a separate rigid box inside my suitcase, to keep them away from shoes, for example.
And, regarding wires at major body joints: I do not recommend placing traditional EL wire across areas that will flex significantly, since it will break due to fatigue damage fairly quickly. I realize that several pictures in my gallery violate this guideline - I try to steer people away from the impractical designs unless they insist they only need to wear it a few times. The durability is strongly influenced by the elasticity of the base fabric and the type of garment. You will have problems if the fabric is too weak/stretchy or too heavy/stiff.
"It is our destiny"... My story needs some explanations, I was just looking for an old-fashioned trench-coat like the ones you can see in the Sopranos TV series when I find your website. What a marvellous moment. I still want my trench-coat, but your collection is so great. Congratulations !
Hi there. I'm a friend of the weird guy above who posted strange story about trench coat and Sopranos. I just wanna say your collection is really an interesting concept and for sure make some people happy. Keep the good work ! By the way, beautiful (non-)abstacts paintings on your personnal website :-) Kisses from France.
hi , I am an adult enterainer and exotic dancer. I can't wait to buy a garment to incorporate into my shows! Looks soo cool and fun! I like it all! http://www.myspace.com/traciislands
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