Low Cost Path Lights

[joe2you]

Plus one for rope lights at shin level and a spare dimmer channel.

The theater I work out of is a combination stage & gymnasium so mounting rope lights isn't an option. A work around was to simply mount a 500W MFL PAR can with a blue gel (don't even use a dimmer) back stage. After 5 years no one in the audience has ever noticed it and it illuminates the entire back stage area just fine.

 

[almorton]

I've used LED tape to light pathways outdoors, so it would work equally well indoors. Here in the UK I was able to source aluminium channel with a snap in diffuser which takes standard LED tap, protects it, diffuses it and, depending on the shape of the channel you get, shields the eyes from glare too. Channels are available to direct the light out from the surface, across the surface (so up/down a wall) or at 45 degrees to the surface. It's low voltage, robust and can be dimmed with a dimmable LED driver. I used just such a set up on my own stairway which is normally treacherous at night, but is now well illuminated with no glare.

 

[DrewE]

I've used LED tape to light pathways outdoors, so it would work equally well indoors. Here in the UK I was able to source aluminium channel with a snap in diffuser which takes standard LED tap, protects it, diffuses it and, depending on the shape of the channel you get, shields the eyes from glare too. Channels are available to direct the light out from the surface, across the surface (so up/down a wall) or at 45 degrees to the surface. It's low voltage, robust and can be dimmed with a dimmable LED driver. I used just such a set up on my own stairway which is normally treacherous at night, but is now well illuminated with no glare.

Over here in the US and Canada, Lee Valley sells those (or very similar) aluminum extrusions and the associated diffusers and hardware.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Sure. But that extrusion is, in my experience, several bucks a foot.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Like $4/ft by web site - before fittings, etc. And before tape light. Rosco has similar products.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

About that.

Epsilon if you're building a $5M PAC. Retrofitting it in someone else's theatre?

I'll take the foam quarter-round at 1.50/8ft stick, and double-stick tape.

 

[almorton]

Sure. But that extrusion is, in my experience, several bucks a foot.

Yeah, not inexpensive, about £5-6 a metre here.