Night cycling: Is it worth using electroluminescent wire?

Asked by: Nikki Ellis

What is electroluminescent wire used for?

It can be used in a wide variety of applications—vehicle and structure decoration, safety and emergency lighting, toys, clothing etc. —much as rope light or Christmas lights are often used. Unlike these types of strand lights, EL wire is not a series of points, but produces a 360 degree unbroken line of visible light.

How long does electroluminescent wire last?

Keeping your EL wire outdoors in direct sunlight will cut the life span to one to two years. When kept indoors or with limited outdoor exposure, your EL wire’s color will last as long as three years. The voltage being applied to your EL wire also affects its lifespan.

Why electroluminescent wires are suitable for use in shop signs?

Neon and fluorescent lighting is delicate and easily broken, as well as difficult and costly to manufacture and install. In contrast, EL wire is incredibly strong and flexible, can be assembled and installed in just minutes, and consumes very little energy.

Is EL wire brighter than LED?

LED strips are the clear winner in this category, as they can easily change color and brightness while EL wire and tape can only be one color and level of brightness. EL wire and tape is cheaper than LED strips.

Can you cut electroluminescent wire?

You can cut EL to any length or shape, but you must reseal the ends you cut. If you do not have an end cap for the EL wire, you can still seal the ends with hot glue or epoxy to seal cut wire. If you don’t reseal, you could end up getting a good jolt.

How long do EL panels last?

Generally speaking, EL has a lifespan of about 4,000-6,000 hours, however with our MEGA series of inverters, this lifespan is increased to about 6-8,000 hours, but we’ve seen products last well over 10,000 hours using these inverters.

Does EL wire make noise?

All EL drivers run at ‘audible’ frequencies which means that you can hear a squeaking noise emanating from the driver case. This is totally normal, but a little annoying. You can reduce the squeaking by opening up the driver case and padding it with foam tape.

Can you see EL wire during the day?

It’s extremely thin, flexible and provides a brilliant glow (about 4x-10x the brightness of EL Wire), which can even be seen in daylight.

Which EL wire is the brightest?

As with all electroluminescent technology, because the EL naturally glows blue/green the brightest colour of the wire is the Aqua, Lime Green and White. The least bright are the red and purple as they have to be filtered the most to get the colours right.

Can you cut electroluminescent sheet?

Note: These panels can be cut to any shape! Regular scissors work fine to cut this EL panel but after you’ve cut the panel you should seal the exposed edges with some tape or epoxy to avoid shorting the panel or shocking yourself.

How do I stop EL wire noise?

Quote from video: Below I'm gonna start by using my hot glue gun to seal the edges of the box this is to prevent any sound from escaping out the sides.

How do you make EL wire brighter?

Make your windings closer together, you have a trade off with the wire blocking more light and the E-fields being more strongly overlapping and exciting more volume of phosphor. Commercial EL wires use a transparent electrode that wraps around the phosphor eliminating this effect (i.e. uniform E-field).

How do electroluminescent materials work?

Electroluminescent panels are a capacitor where the dielectric between the outside plates is a phosphor that gives off photons when the capacitor is charged. By making one of the contacts transparent, the large area exposed emits light.

Is EL wire waterproof?

EL WIRE is water resistant but should not be submersed in water or be used in high humidity applications. Although the casing is plastic, after long periods of time water can be absorbed into the wire causing it to turn black. The drivers/power supplies are NOT waterproof.

How do you join two thin wires together?

Quote from video: You want to strip off kind of more wired than you would normally do with like a crimp connector. So I'm gonna do about an inch on each side. And these are really handy.

How does electroluminescent work?

Electroluminescence is the basis of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in which a p-n junction diode can emit light when an appropriate voltage is applied, so that electrons recombine with electron holes in the device to release energy in the form of photons [23].

How do electroluminescent materials work?

Electroluminescent panels are a capacitor where the dielectric between the outside plates is a phosphor that gives off photons when the capacitor is charged. By making one of the contacts transparent, the large area exposed emits light.

What is an electroluminescent sheet?

Electroluminescent Displays (ELDs) are a type of flat panel display created by sandwiching a layer of electroluminescent material such as GaAs between two layers of conductors. When current flows, the layer of material emits radiation in the form of visible light.

How does El neon wire work?

Electroluminescent wire (EL Neon wire) has a stiff copper wire core, coated with phosphor and then covered with a protective PVC coating. When an AC signal is applied to it, it glows. It looks a little like thin neon. It is extremely economical to run and gives off hardly any heat.

How do I stop EL wire noise?

Quote from video: Below I'm gonna start by using my hot glue gun to seal the edges of the box this is to prevent any sound from escaping out the sides.

How do you make EL wire brighter?

Make your windings closer together, you have a trade off with the wire blocking more light and the E-fields being more strongly overlapping and exciting more volume of phosphor. Commercial EL wires use a transparent electrode that wraps around the phosphor eliminating this effect (i.e. uniform E-field).