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.

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.

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.

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.