Kevin Ching says:

Hi Nicholas
This depends on what lighting effect that you want you can use grain of wheat bulbs that are available in two voltages 6 and 12 volt this is ok if you want an incandescence look or use LED’s and dropping resistor if you want a different effect however LED’s are available in bright white for modern or soft white or yellow for older style light. you can also get a flickering LED for old oil lamp effect. You can get a circuit that makes the LED’s start up as a florescent style lamp you can run these off 3 volt or 12 volt depending on the size of resister used your local electronic parts shop should be able to tell you the size of the resistor for what voltage.

Henry Nier says:

I agree with above. LED’s last a long time. I have been using them for years. I use a company called Jameco electronics. Their website is Jameco.com. order free catalogue.

Louis van Zyl says:

When designing a light system keep to a single voltage, say 12V. When you connect any lights to it like LED;s or bulbs that are not 12V use a limiting resistor in line. It makes live much easier when vault finding if there is a single voltage and not two or three different voltages. It also prevents accidental connection of a lower voltage bulb to a higher voltage that will cause it to blow.

Jstrains says:

I use less from a christmas string. I clip off an led and put a 1k, 1/4 watt resistor in series, then power with 12 svc. It works great and cheap. I bought a string of 100 that will last me a while.