If you haven’t already heard, LEDs are pretty remarkable. Because of their small size and pointedly direct light, they have become a widely popular solution in illuminated sign projects. This not only applies to new signage but also existing signage that might require an upgrade.
Simplistically, think of the flashlight you used about 20 years ago. The light produced a dull, yellowish circle that tended to fade out in a short amount of time. Replacing that with a sharper, bright light and a longer-lasting, more targeted beam made it a more effective tool. It works in the sign world too.
The process of retrofitting a sign with LEDs creates several distinct advantages. It can save a customer money, enhance the overall appearance of the sign, and utilize much less electricity while doing so. It’s for this reason that those in the LED market have realized a tremendous opportunity in replacing outdated lighting parts with LED technology.
Why Retrofit?
“There are two major factors sign companies should consider when retrofitting a sign,” says Bryan Vincent, Ph.D., partner at Principal LED. “First is the age and condition of the sign.”
Aesthetic improvements such as repainting the sign could signal an opportunity to also retrofit it.
“That is the best time to consider an LED retrofit,” says Vincent. “In this situation, the customer will be already incurring the cost of the trip to the site, so it makes sense to perform the retrofit at the same time.”
Secondly, Vincent urges the sign maker to consider the overall return on investment (ROI) for the customer.
“The ROI will determine what timeframe the customer will recoup his or her investment,” he explains. “The acceptable amount of time varies from customer to customer, but ROIs less than 36 months are considered good investments, are typically within the warranty terms of the manufacturer, and are especially favorable when the warranty is backed by both a product and labor warranty.”
There are several factors that go into estimating the ROI, including the material and installation costs, energy savings, and markups. An online calculator can be found on Principal LED’s website to help estimate these costs for different projects.
When the decision is made to proceed with a retrofit, the sign maker must then take into consideration the sign, as a whole, and how to proceed with the project.
For example, “When retrofitting cabinets, things to consider are the cabinet size (length, width, depth) and any structures such as poles,” tells Joe Reis, director of LED signage at International Light Technologies, Inc. “The cabinet's dimensions will be the driving factor in what LED system is selected in terms of brightness of the modules, spacing of the modules, and the type of mounting system.”
Retrofit Considerations
Sign makers should anticipate the amount of time it will take to install the new sign. Additionally, they should ask themselves questions about how to make the sign most effective and efficient for the customer. In turn, the customer will likely have questions as well. Below are some considerations and results that will come from a retrofit project.
CONSIDERATION
RESULT DURING RETROFIT
Replace cabinet or channel letters?
Customer's choice - usually only if there is damage.
Change the sign face?
Not required, but new faces may enhance the appearance.
Reconfigure the electrical?
Not required, but energy usage will drop with low-voltage LEDs.
Future maintenance costs?
Will decrease; LED lifespan is over 50,000 hours.
Summarizing these points, the very nature of the LED lighting components will allow customers to save money. Horton says that costs after the installation are “anywhere from none to very minimal. Our primary sign lighting products for letters exceed 100,000 hours of life while our cabinet products exceed 200,000 hours of life.”
Getting into the design and look of the sign really has more to do with the customer’s preference than anything else.
“If the client wants to update the graphics, doing that at the same time as the retrofit makes sense. If the cabinet itself is in poor condition, then updating or replacing the cabinet may be required,” says Reis.
The same is true for replacing the sign’s face or graphics, though Reis explains that “updating the graphics may enhance its overall look. Good LED systems with a high color rendering index (90+ CRI) can really make the graphics ‘pop’ visually.”
Challenges of Weather
Of course, any time a new sign is designed and installed there are usually obstacles that must be cleared. Installing an outdoor sign can present one of those challenges.
According to Horton, “Weather is the main thing to consider. Most of the standard products in the market today are ‘damp rated’ but not ‘wet rated.’ As long as the LEDs that are used outside are in an enclosure such as letters or cabinets, and proper drain holes are built into the signs, there should be no issues.”
Temperature changes can lead to some failures as well. The escalation in heat level will affect the performance of LEDs.
“LEDs are subject to faster degradation in elevated temperatures,” says Vincent. “In addition, power supplies give off heat and when that is coupled with the elevated heat inside the sign or on the roof of a building, the chance of failure increases.”
Extreme summer conditions coupled with the heat that is emitted by the power supply can reach levels of around 140 degrees F. “Therefore, it is not recommended to use power supplies that have operating temperature ratings that are below 140 degrees F for outdoor applications,” explains Vincent.
On the flipside of the coin, very cold conditions will negatively impact the performance of neon and fluorescent lighting products, “whereas LED excels in cold environments,” says Reis. “In many cases LED will be the better option for outdoor signage, especially in cold-weather regions.”
Aside from the external conditions of the sign, and more specific to retrofitting, there are customers that still really enjoy the visual effect of neon. Can sign makers offer anything from an LED perspective that re-creates a neon glow? The short answer is, not really. But there is a longer explanation.
“I may be called a traditionalist here, but in my opinion the nostalgic glow of skeleton neon is really hard to re-create with LEDs, primarily due to the back glow created by neon,” says Vincent. “That being said a number of LED manufacturers have nice-looking and reasonably priced linear border products.”
Horton agrees with Vincent, citing the difficulty of LEDs mimicking neon’s characteristics. He says, “If you want the true look of neon, such as mounted around the border of a building, you are very limited in your options. I believe there are only one or two companies in the market today that still make a neon-looking LED tubing. If you are looking for indirect lighting to give just a halo effect around the perimeter of a building, you could mount many types of LEDs into a channel and get the same effect.”
Coming back to ROI, however, Vincent reminds us to be aware of the cost. “I would just warn anyone before going from skeleton neon to LED to consider the ROI – they are much longer than other LED systems (channel letters, etc.) due to the up-front cost of these systems.”
The Color of LEDs
Comparing neon with LEDs ultimately leads to a conversation about color. What looks most attractive, captures the greatest attention, and works best with the whole signage theme. In this case, the versatility of LEDs can give sign makers more options.
“Colored LEDs have the inherent advantage that they are essentially monochromatic,” starts Vincent, “therefore, color variation is typically not an issue.”
Most often with LED signs, it’s the sign face that determines the color of the display.
Says Reis, “This really depends on the design of the sign face/graphic. If the client wants a white face during the daytime, but a color at night (Longhorn Steakhouse is an example of this) then they will need to use a colored module to achieve the desired color when illuminated at night. This can result in an ‘in between’ color (such as looking pink vs red) during dusk/dawn hours.”
Taking it a step further, Horton explains that the materials that make up the sign face play a major role in the sign’s color output.
“Is the face colored acrylic or is it white with a translucent vinyl overlay?” He asks. “Many companies today have gone exclusively to white acrylic with vinyl because it cuts down on the numbers of acrylic and LED products you have to keep in stock. The options available today in translucent vinyl (along with digital printing) make colors almost unlimited. There are still some good quality color acrylics in the market, and some people prefer to apply the old ‘neon rule’ when using colored LEDs today, which is to put the same color of LED behind whatever color acrylic you are using.”
It's better to be safe than sorry, especially when you’re looking to achieve the best color match with a company logo or lettering for example. Reis notes that any LED, whether white or colored, can change the color of a sign’s acrylic face, “so the installer should be aware of the effects of the system they are considering, but a white LED with a good color rendering index (90+ CRI) will most likely achieve the desired result.”
Including colored LEDs in sign projects is one trend on the rise, but there are others worth tracking. Vincent says that retrofitting cabinet signs in general is becoming more popular.
“Many smaller sign companies today outsource their manufacturing,” says Vincent, “and ready-to-go fluorescent-to-LED retrofit systems are a great revenue source for companies that focus primarily on service and installation.”
Along with the retrofit, illuminated signs in general seem to be getting sleeker in design.
“LEDs allow sign cabinets and channel letters to be much thinner than with traditional lighting methods,” explains Reis. “Additionally, the long life and high reliability of LED systems removes the concern of damage that can occur during maintenance. Often the LED systems outlive the use of the sign itself.”
Which brings us back to one main reason why more and more people are turning to LEDs—the absolute dependability of their lighting output. It’s not uncommon for LEDs to last up to a decade in a sign project. And for this reason, Horton concludes, “you are now seeing an upward trend towards using LED modules in cabinet signs.”