With Sign Clemente having completed its seventh year in business, it gives us pause to look back at the changes we have seen and helped advance.
One of the biggest changes—an improvement really—is from neon to LED lighting. Neon is a fascinating technology. It is over one hundred years old and you can see it in use everywhere you turn. However, neon requires at least 8,000 volts, 12,000 volts on average, in order to operate. This voltage is accomplished through a transformer designed for such use, but the unintended results are numerous.
First, because neon requires high voltage, all wiring needs to be shielded. That means that every installation requires lots of conduit which racks up lots of materials and labor cost. Second, 12,000 volts requires a great deal of power consumption. Your light bill will noticeably increase when you install a neon sign. Third, you can expect outage problems with your neon sign after about five or six years of use. And fourth, even though this is rare but certainly not unheard of, with that much voltage you incur a chance of fire.
None of these problems exist with LED lighting. LED’s require 12 volts, not 12,000. Therefore, they are much easier and therefore much less expensive to install. Installers can easily install a set of LED lighted letters in half the time as neon. With 12 volt, there is a noticeable reduction in power usage.
Best of all, LED’s are usually rated for 100,000 hours of use. Here is a little math: if you light your sign for five hours every night, your LED’s will last you nearly 55 years! Plus, if one LED does fail, the other LEDs will stay lit and any changes in light output will be negligible.
Then why haven’t customers adapted LED lighting sooner? The answer is that until the last couple of years, the LED option cost at least 20% more than neon. Most businesses wanting to preserve cash, especially as a start up, opted for neon. Also, white LED’s were not as bright as white neon.
All that has changed. Just like most things, there are varying qualities of LED’s, some are brighter than others; some are weatherized better than others. Further, the quality of the installation will affect how well your LED’s stand up to moisture. But on balance, you can now expect to install your lighted letters with LED’s instead of neon for about the same price—certainly you will save money within your first twelve months of use.
Sign Clemente has not sold or installed neon in over two years. Certainly with today’s concern for carbon footprint and power consumption, LED is the way to go!
