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Lighting Choices
for Pole Signs and Pylon Signs
There are many
different ways that you can light up your sign:
neon, LEDs, fiber optics, H. I. D. (High Intensity Discharge), spotlighting,
etc. However, for most sign cabinets fluorescent lighting is still the
best. Recently there have been dramatic advances in fluorescent lighting
that have not been widely utilized in the sign industry.
If you are aware of
the recent developments in automobile headlights, how some
headlights are brighter and more visible than traditional
headlights, you can understand how simply selecting the
proper light spectrum and intensity can dramatically
affect the visibility aspects of your sign.
There are two
important indexes for judging the importance of various
lamps in illuminating your sign: Color Rendering Index (CRI)
and the light’s color, expressed as degrees Kelvin (K).
In degrees Kelvin a
lower number is a more “yellow/red” light, a higher number
is a more “blue” light.
Interestingly, the
color of “daylight” varies from the equator to the poles.
But it is generally accepted as about 6000K with a CRI of
100.
A CRI of 100 is
perfectly matching the sun’s effect on colors.
In white neon the old standard has been that 6500K neon is
best for lighting a sign face. It has a CRI of 65.
The tri-phosphor “rare earth” neon Signs Manufacturing
uses to illuminate digital graphics, translucent paint,
translucent vinyl, and color transparencies has a CRI of
almost 100.
The “multi-vapor” HID
lighting we use is 6000K with a CRI of almost 100.
These are the highest ratings obtainable with HID
lighting. Other forms of HID lighting have lower
values.
Fluorescent lamps,
the most common way to light a sign cabinet, offer
choices.
Because of a general
lack of knowledge most sign companies, and therefore the
non-major-retailer signs, have gravitated to cool white,
high output (CW HO) lamps. They were the original
color available, and they are cheaper. Not a lot
cheaper, but cheaper.
Unless you work for a
very major corporation and have been paid to study this
issue this information has not been readily available
until now.
 Thanks
to digital photography we are now able to show you what we
are talking about without asking each potential customer
to visit our lighting laboratory.
The left side of
the picture is a sign lighted by Daylight HO lamps, the
right side with CW HO lamps. A thin black line has
been placed where the two pictures are spliced together.
CW HO lamps are 4500K
with a CRI of 50.
The best fluorescent
lamp now available for a signs application is a
“Daylight HO” lamp. It is 6000K and has a CRI of 65,
the highest value we can obtain with a fluorescent lamp.
(This color and CRI are also available in VHO lamps.)
These lamps are
slightly more expensive, but they are what we use in the
fluorescent lighted signs we manufacture. If you
have existing outdoor fluorescent signs you would be wise
to have us install Daylight HO lamps in them. Your
signs will certainly be more noticeable.
Our simple goal is to
get a potential customer to notice your sign first; rather
than look at someone else’s sign and never notice yours.
Fluorescent, HID, and Neon Brightness
Glass tubes 8 mm to 18 mm thick are
used to make “neon” lamps, 18 mm to 30 mm thick to make
so-called “cold-cathode” lamps, thicker to make
“fluorescent” lamps.
Other than size and the type of
electrode used, there is no difference between neon and
fluorescent lamps of the same color output. The size
and/or color does change the energy requirements, however,
which is why they use different power sources. All
things being equal, the thinner the tube, the more light
it puts out.
Unless there are over-riding lumen
requirements, or landlord restrictions, we will adjust
your lighting to give you the brightest sign possible.
We always space fluorescent lighting tubes, and HID lighting, 25%
closer than virtually all other sign manufacturers, much closer than
the "cheap" manufacturers, to insure a bright sign.
Again, our simple
goal is to get a potential customer to notice your sign
first; rather than look at someone else’s sign and never
notice yours. When
you use electricity it should attract customers.
We can make you an even brighter
sign, click our
Brighter Signs tab to the
left.
Incandescent Lighting
Incandescent (household) lamps begin disappearing in 2012, starting with the 100 watt lamp, and will be mostly gone by 2014.
The Government has mandated that all these lamps, with 22 exceptions, must begin being at least 25% more energy efficient starting in 2014, 70% more efficient by 2020.
"Sign Service" lamps are exempt, but whether or not lamp manufacturers will recognize a big enough market to continue to make just them is problematic.
Also,
Sign Service lamps not the type of lamps used to externally light signs.
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