Back-lighting a Stained Glass Window

13 years ago

Our church is undergoing a major remodel and in the process one of the stained glass windows had to be removed. We had a case built behind the altar for it. the window is 8' tall and about 36" wide. We considered several ideas for back-lighting it, including T5 florescent bulbs with a dimmable electronic ballast. I was in favor of this until I saw a demonstration of an LED ribbon. The ribbon consists of 300 super bright soft white LEDs along its 16' length. A regulated 12 volt power supply and a constant voltage dimmer are also something we needed. Our plan is to cut the ribbon, (this can be done), into 2-8' sections and have one on either side of the case running the full height of the window. I would mount the ribbon on 2-8' lengths of conduit so that it would be held straight and even while also allowing us to turn the conduit for the best effect.

So what do you think?

Jim

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Comments (2)

soxxxx
13 years ago
I think you might contact a stained glass expert who has experience with church lighting. I attended a church once that had 4 stained glass panels behind the choir stage. They were quite distracting because of the poor lighting. The lightening was much too bright
bikesr2tired
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi soxxxx,

We did consult a specialist and he did recommend the LEDs. We installed the LEDs the way I said we would in my original post. They seem to be quite effective, however we won't know till after the 1st of the year when the window gets installed. I had the same concern you mentioned so I included a constant voltage dimmer designed specifically for this application and it works perfectly.

The only concern I have is a darker area running down the center. I'm going to wait until the glass is installed to see what it looks like and then take the appropriate action if needed.
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