LED Lighting Sources or other options

LEDs look a good bet. Go for it.

You might find some surplus electro-eluminescent pannels. They are inexpensive and give off typically a 'soft green glow'. Enought to keep you from tripping at night. Their energy use is quite low, but so is the light output. They are VERY cool running, so you are not paying for a lot of heat.

LED's are going to be the next 'big thing' after we get done re-tooling the world with CFLs and someone starts saying 'mercury from CFLs is posining the earth'. Currently they are (commercially) considerably more expensive than CFLs. Their life expectancy should be MUCH longer than CFLs. Currently their visable light output isn't as great and the cost is 4 to 10x higher.

But if you are planning to live 'off grid', NOT paying for genreating capacity could make LEDs be MUCH more affordable option.

http://www.ilight-tech.com/

check them out you might them to be what you want

you may go for 5 watt CFL.

You can also use luminous strips on step edges or useluminous paints available now for the Celing.

LEDs are a pretty good choice. Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=30023417379

http://cgi.ebay.com/12V-2000mA-LED-Lighting-AC-DC-Switching-power-Adapter_W0QQitemZ120211033849

are what I used for under counter lights.

Gordon

You might try replacement LED lamps. Meanwhile are there replacements with nearly all sockets and also 220V types. Their light might not be as bright as the equivalent glass bulb but the consumption and lifetime are higher. You may start to replace only a few in the beginning to check-out the light effect. I do so in my home with the halogen staircase lamps and found now a very bright type.

low power consumption for stair lighting?

Use light store material. it dont use any electric power!

有\ you can buy it from any chemical store.

Either one of these companies should have what you need:

http://www.del-lighting.com/

http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/

Try Patlite, they have some new products that might work well in this application. This lights were designed to replace flourescents on machines, and operate on 24vdc.

http://www.patlite.com/index.php?main_page=product_list&main_category_id=1&category_id=11

I think that light fibres or luminescent foils which can store light are not desirable, because:

1. Staircases may have bad natural light and even if there might be enough light the self-luminescent foils don't keep it long enough.

2. Illumination with automatic switching on with e.g. PIR-switches is nice but not each type of light source likes it. Flourescent lamps don't like to be started often and traditional light bulbs don't like it either.

3. Halogen lamps with soft starters are good as well and withstand frequent switching good as well.

4. LED's are nicest but maybe at bit expensive.

It might be worth to estimate the consumption of electric energy if lamps are always on in comparison to consumption with PIR-switch. I assume that e.g. the PIR-switch consumes extra energy which is considerable and that the cost of a PIR-switch might be more expensive than the energy which is saved. Or in other words: The PIR must work e.g. 100 years to save its price, which is totally unrealistic: After a few years they are normally blown...

Harvest energy from weight on the stair treads or from the door opening. Use a pneumatic bladder such as an inner tube to generate air pressure, then size your pneumatic actuator for the amount of movement your electric generating element requires. Use Cnpower's L.E.D. circuit to drive your lighting element:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/23137/Contribute-a-simplest-led-circuit?frmtrk=CR4digest

Note that this circuit may seem a little elaborate for most L.E.Ds, but drive white L.E.Ds nicely.

Actually LED rope light would be quite cheap, and consume very little power.

We also have a product called PVC/LED flexible strip light.. This is quite a bit brighter than standard rope light, but you can dim it nicely, and also operate it off any standard 12v adaptor that you can either buy from Radio Shack for 20 bucks, OR from your local salvation army store for .50 cents.. :o)

You wouldn't have to purchase a whole meter per stair, as this product comes in as small of unit as 3 pcs of 5mm LED, and is completely water proof, (as long as you shrink tube your wire connections), with leads attached and you could space them to cut your cost down and the effect would be the same, you could see where the stairs are with very little power consumption, and very long life...

We buy direct from all manufacturers, so we should be very competitive..

Don Campbell,

Everything LED

Hmm, using the LED strips from a previous poster, you might just run them on one side of the stairs at the tread height angled along the stairs, on the 'wall' (rather than the banister) side of the stairs. If the strips are as bright as the poster mentioned it would probable illuminate the entire stair at a reasonable price. Why the 'wall' side? I would think it might be easier to 'hide', to fasten and to get / find power. And you might be able to run it all from one power source.

low power consumption for stair lighting?

Use light store material. it dont use any electric power!

有\ you can buy it from any chemical store

Actually, this is True... you can purchase "Glow in the dark" Spray paint, but you would need a good light source during the day to "Charge" the chemical...

I know people buy those glow in the dark toilet seats, and led lighted toilet seats.

Heck, I just bought one of those transparent seats , the ones with bubbles in, and just sprayed the underside of the toilet seat.. The glow is plenty enough to see where it is in total dark, and NOT disturb mama with my 5-6 trips to pee each night..:o(

donald

(Warning: Shameless but relevant plug coming ...)

If this in a commercial or industrial application, my firm, Albeo Technologies, makes an LED fixture that would work well for stairwells. Check out the Constellation Linear product.

Hope this helps,

tracy