LED vs. Neon- A Good Way to Save Money and GO GREEN

Many retailers utilize neon-illuminated signs and channel letters in their on-premise advertising.  If a store’s illuminated building letters are more than 10 years old, chances are they have neon lighting inside… and nowadays neon costs a lot of money to power and maintain.

Existing neon channel letters can be upgraded to LED for longer life and reduced energy consumption. The result is a sign that is not only green and eco-friendly, but budget friendly, brighter, and maintenance free.

Channel letter being converted from neon to LED. Even in the picture notice how much brighter the LED’s are.

The energy savings from choosing LED over neon are easy to quantify:

NEON vs. L.E.D. – Power savings
	NEON	L.E.D.
Power Usage per foot	20 watts	1.2 watts
# of feet for sample	80	80
x Power Consumption	20 watts	1.2 watts
= Total	1,600 watts	96 watts
x 12 hours per day	19,200 watts	1,152 watts
x 365 Days per year	7,008,000	420,480
/ 1000 = annual kilowatt hour	7,008	420.48
x Cost per kilowatt hour (Dominion Power, Richmond)	$ .11	$ .11
Total annual energy cost	$ 770.88	$ 46.25
Savings over neon ($)		$ 724.63
Savings over neon (%)		94%

For perspective, in our example above, the neon sign draws as much power as (20) 42″ flat screen TV’s. The LED sign is the equivalent of one television. That’s a big difference! From an environmental perspective, the neon sign would consume 7,500 pounds of coal per year while our LED sign consumes just 450 pounds. LED channel letters are also “greener” than neon, as they have no mercury content. This environmental friendliness can be a helpful factor in the permitting process as well as a great marketing tool.

One of the most important features of LED signs is their brightness and clarity. LED technology produces a sign that is very bright yet clear and easy to read from a distance. Neon signs, however, tend to look a little blurry from far away. The clear glow of an LED sign is therefore more appealing to customers and leaves a clearer image in their mind as they drive by your business. And, LED signs are bright and easy to see even in direct sunlight, whereas it can be hard to tell if a neon sign is on or not in the daylight.

Neon failures take out the entire letter. On cold days, neon might not light up as brightly.

LED signs are also virtually maintenance free. There are no gases, no glass tubes, no argon or mercury problems and LED lights don’t run out. Neon signs will eventually lose all of the neon inside the glass tubes which means you have to replace the gas by taking it to professional neon sign manufacturer or simply buy a new sign. Of course this process takes 10 years or more but eventually it will happen. Neon signs also get dimmer over time while LED’s retain their brightness for the life of the module. LED is also far less sensitive to weather extremes. Another added bonus of LED signs—they are easier to clean than neon signs because there are no tubes to clean off (and those tubes get hot!). LED signs are also durable and last up to 100,000 hours (11 years), even if left on 24/7. When they do fail, LED modules are far easier to replace.

Submitted by: Mark Hackley, Account Manager, Holiday Signs 

Member VIADA, VBA, VHTA, HRACRE, GRACRE, Mid-Atlantic NATO