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Recent advances in Light Emitting Diode (LED) technologies allow us to produce a channel letter sign using Red or Yellow LED’s that is brighter than neon, or uses less energy.

White, Blue, and Green LED technology has not advanced to the point that Red and Yellow technology has; they are not as useful in channel-letter signage applications.

For Electronic Message Centers, however, LED is the hands-down winner vs. incandescent lighting.  It is cheaper, lasts longer, and uses less energy.

Many companies manufacture the actual LED’s.  There are over 5,000 varied LED’s available, and they vary greatly as to brightness, light-dispersal (viewing) angle, useful lifetime, and lifetime.

Some are very cheap, some are quite expensive, but all cost more than neon for equal illumination.

Electric Sign Authority members use LED’s that are rated to retain 80% of their brightness for 50,000+ hours.  These are the most expensive, but highest value, LED’s.  Our selection of LED’s is what makes our signs brighter, and last longer.  The Electric Sign Authority is an industry leader in the implementation of new technology in advertising.

We insist on military specification coatings on the circuit boards the LED’s are attached to, preventing corrosion and electrical problems.

Like neon, LED’s are also affected by voltage.  For instance, an LED will also burn nearly 100% brighter if you double the power feeding it.  The LED will last about 1/6 as long, however, making this alternative quite expensive in total cost.

We power our signs properly, and offer a 5 year warranty on the LED’s in our lighted signs.

If a sign has red or yellow faces our LED lighted signs can be brighter than ANY neon lighted sign by adding MANY LED lights.

In manufacturing very small letters, we can light them with LED’s even when they are too small to light with neon.

LED transformers, because they are low-voltage output, do not need ground-fault protection; their voltage is not dangerous.  Their warranty is one year.

Think of LED’s as very small, individual, lights.  There is no standard for spacing them horizontally and vertically in the varying width and shape of a channel letter.  Illumination results (brightness and evenness of lighting) are determined by the experience level of the sign company and their willingness to place illumination results ahead of personal profits.  Results vary.

LED’s begin getting dimmer as soon as they are powered up.  In approximately 2 to 15 years, depending on their quality, they are too dim to be useful as a sign.

Unlike neon which will burn more brightly for a short while, then dim to an even glow for many years, when LED’s are replaced they continue to burn much brighter than all of the LED’s around them.  Also, it is not possible to color match new LED’s and old LED’s.  And, because LED technology is advancing so rapidly, exact replacement LED’s are unavailable after only a year or so.  Therefore, plan to replace all of the LED’s when only a few have burned out so that your sign does not light unevenly and off-color, giving your potential customers a bad impression of your business.

Many LED light-string components are wired in series, so that many of the LED’s go out when one LED fails.  Signs Manufacturing’s signs do not do them, however.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has studied LED's and states that while LED's are generally far superior to incandescent lights their efficacy does not approach fluorescent lamps and neon.

There is a significantly higher "parts count" in a LED lighted channel letter sign.  More parts to fail.  Click our "Energy Savings" tab one page up to view a comparison of operating costs and number of components so you can make an informed decision.

Email our Team: Team@ElectricSignAuthority.com

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