A couple of private airfields not so local to me have over the years installed runway lights. Both consist of low wattage compact fluorescent lamps wired up in parallel and then simply plug into a mains socket. I'm told they work quite well.
If you where installing runway lighting at a private strip how would you do it. I'm thinking of LEDs and controlled by PCL.
We trenched in light wiring at the runway I frequented back in the old days, though it worked, it did have operational drawbacks.
I started off here 23 years ago with simply good reflectors down both sides, which is technically legal. That was owing to the fact that I had ho electricity until I built the house. With the house, and a ground source heating trench down one side of the runway, came buried wire. With that, I had electric lights at the four corners of the runway, and still the reflectors.
Reflectors only worked fairly well, as long as you could get yourself lined up on final, but in a crosswind, it could be difficult to keep them illuminated. As my 150 only has one landing light bulb, a blown bulb was always a concern.
Lately I have found solar LED lights to be excellent, and they supplement the four corner lights and reflectors which remain.
If you are trenching in wire, bury an extra meter or two under each light, protected in a plastic bin or something, so that when someone shears off a light and its wire flush with the ground, you can dig more wire up to rewire it. Unless your runway is 200 feet wide, make sure that the lights are frangible, and light enough that they won't wreck a plane which hits one - solar LED lights are great in this respect - all light cheap plastic. If clearing snow is a consideration, have a plan as to where the snow will go, so you can clear without wiping the lights off.
If you have cooperative neighbours, a few solar LED spotlights on fences or hedgerows along the extended runway centerline are a great help for lining up, if the runway lights are dim.
Here in the UK, the subject of PCL (pilot controlled lighting) comes up every so often, and the argument which claims it is illegal is based on a particular interpretation of the regs concerning the use of VHF.
(There is a separate reg for licensed airfields which requires the runway lights to be NON controllable from beyond the airfield perimeter; this probably blocks the use of PCL at any airfield which desires to support AOC traffic. Even though a workaround would be to do the 5 clicks overhead the airfield 
those airfields need CAA permits for various other things.....)
There are a number of airfields that have PCL however and nobody has busted them.
The difficulty is choosing the radio frequency.
If you already have one formally allocated then putting a "PCL box" there which just detects the five clicks or whatever is IMHO (not a lawyer, etc) hugely unlikely to get you busted.
But if you don't have one allocated, then which one should you use? There isn't one you can legally use. As we all know, "everybody" uses 123.45 for informal air-air comms, but that one is allocated to somebody...
What would sidestep all this VHF stuff is using an "SMS box" to turn the lights on. SMS works well at low altitudes, say 2000ft AGL. Like "everybody" else, I've been sending (and receiving) messages for the 12 years I've been flying, and they always work when low down like that.
There are a number of products on the market which can switch a relay contact from an SMS message, and even in my company (as an admin I've got to be extra careful to not advertise 
) we sell an industrial SMS/email/fax alarm product which, with some adaptation, could do that, for about £400. You just need to buy a SIM card. And switching the lights would need a potentially hefty relay. In fact we did wonder if there was any demand for a self contained waterproof box which does all that, with say a 20 amp relay.
If I had my own runway, with no allocated VHF frequency, I would immediately put in PCL via SMS.
One could even send the message from a satellite phone. They can be found on Ebay for £300 (Thuraya 7100) and with a reasonably careful choice of the terrestrial network (a lot of terrestrial GSM networks won't receive SMSs from satphones, believe it or not) it will actually work.
Then you just need some waterproof LED lights...
There is an allocated frequency although the sms text may be a better option. However initially portable lighting is being considered. I suspect something like the flashing road lights with the flashing bit disabled and the lens changed to a different colour. Has anyone got any experience of using something along these lines and if so how well did they work. What did they cost and where could you get them from.
hope no one minds bumping this up but does anyone know anywhere that sells portable lights that would be suitable and cost effective
I asked a colleague who manufactures runway lights, but I didn't get the feeling that "cost effective" would appear in the same sentence as "runway lights". Most runway/taxiway lights tend to cost of the order of £100 each - at a minimum. That will translate to a huge bill.
Obviously you need something waterproof...
I wonder how this is worked on a grass runway, or next to a hard runway where the lights might be in the grass. The grass obviously needs cutting! Looking at my local, the runway edge lights are in grass but are each mounted within a concrete circle, about 30cm diameter, and this allows the grass to be easily cut right up to it. At your own strip you probably won't be able to do that, so I guess they must be removable (on top of a spike) or else somebody has to go round each one with a strimmer.
There are plenty of waterproof LED based fittings, especially from "trade" sources, of widely varying quality.
Perhaps you could even make the number an SMS premium rate number, and you could recoup the night lighting costs / landing fee through the telephone company.
Very funny
The problem with that is that the person(s) landing behind you would be getting a free ride. Can't allow that...
I have recently installed 500m of pilot controlled, solar powered, 12volt ,LED runway lighting. The 18 lights are controlled by a GSM relay, and are not contected to the mains. Cost about £1500. The details should be in the next edition of Instrument Pilot.
The GSM switch referred in the above post is this one.
Quite a neat little box
There are a number of them but that's a neat one. I wonder how it stops a PAYG SIM expiring - most networks kill them after 90 days, and some require a call, not just an SMS. In fact some require a topup every 90 days, though I don't think any UK ones are quite so aggressive. But you can get a contract SIM down to about £5/month.
The next challenge is finding LED lamps which are themselves waterproof and will plug into a waterproof socket which has a cable entry (or two entries, since they will be daisy-chained).
In a previous life I was with a horse-mad wife and spend a fair bit of time sorting out solar panel charged car batteries, powering electric fence energisers, to stop the horse damaging the fence around the field. A very similar challenge, making everything waterproof.
In fact there are many parallels between planes and horses
One is constantly worrying about somebody messing with it.
One goes to a lot of trouble to find somewhere to keep it, and the "security of tenure" is constantly in doubt.
It's a bottomless pit for money.
The emotional attachment is similar.
I am tempted to make a comment on the source of the funds...
But there are differences.
Horse dentists drive much fancier cars than aircraft maintenance engineers.
Horse dentists have a much more interesting (I mean varied) sex life (not speaking from experience, do note).
You can leave a plane for a week or two but a horse is an every-day job.
A horse is really pretty useless for going anywhere.
A horse moves when you don't expect it to (really spooky when it first happens).
