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Lighting Choices for Pole, Pylon, Monument, Cabinet SignsThere are many different ways that you can light up your sign: neon, LEDs, fiber optics, 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.
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 signage 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/Neon BrightnessGlass 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. Fluorescent lighting is spaced 25% closer than virtually all 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.
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