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Signs Of The Times March 2017 - 60's Revival (FAKE NEWS)


Erik Sine

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I often wondered how long it would take our Industry Trade Magazine to turn back to it's old ways and lately I'm starting to see signs of it.

 

Wade who I once called the "Community Organizer" turned his ship around 180˙ for the better, then left his Captain's hat to another. 

 

The signs were there, and soon we gave her, her new name, the "Community Agitator"

 

Now comes

 

'60s Revival

A 1962 airport sign is recrafted in identical letters with brighter LED lighting

 

SOT Decline.jpg

 

By Laura Peters

 

Can be read here

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/STMG/sott_201703/index.php#/34

 

 

I'm still trying to understand the Premise of the article or story that is trying to be relayed because for those of us in the electric sign industry apples and oranges are being compared and then Neon once again is being flamed on an unfounded basis.

 

I get the brutal weather in New York and a roof sign does get hit hard, bu why not Re-Engineer and improve it, cover it with Clear Poly-Carbonate?

 

Anyway, I wrote a letter to Laura with a few questions about the articles Mis-Characterization of both Neon & LEDs

 

Quote

Good morning Laura,

I had a couple of questions regarding your article.

What was it about the sign that had an annual cost of $15,000 annually to maintain?

Do you know what the load was for the sign before retrofit?  Footage of clear glass I’m guessing was 15mm?  If not can you tell me how many transformers and size?


I have to say after reading this article in the SOT, it was a bad comparison to to say the LEDs only needed one 20-amp circuit )9 amps) and the Neon needed 6-20 amp circuits.  The readers are being presented with very misleading information about the original Neon sign and really, the article is comparing apples and oranges.

The Neon Sign is open face and I notice what looks like 4 strokes of Neon in the fat areas.  Once you close that face and use LED’s I Image it was probably 2 or three strokes of a 1/2 watt Red LEDs because the channel just got deeper using 5” coil.  

That’s okay, but when working with what Neon was in there, (four strokes) the light output on the sign red #2283 face would not favor the LED’s in anyway.  In fact 15mm clear red and 1/2watt modules are pretty identical when using a light meter to measure sign face surface light.  

Then I noticed white was used, again a 1/2 watt module (Sloan).  When you use red faces you don’t use white LED’s, that washes it out, you always match the light source to the sign face.

There is also a trade off, clear pumped Neon glass is just glass and gas, and light output does not degrade overt time nor do temperatures affect the light output unlike it’s affect to LEDs and LED’s do degrade over time.

You took a open channel letter sign and that displays strokes of Neon lamps for it’s character and covered it using with red acrylic then used LEDs that uses a sign face to display it’s character and made a comparison about light output and energy saving.  

A fair comparison article would have been about re-trofiting a closed face neon internally illuminated channel letter set to a closed face LED set because the Neon use would have been the same as the LED set.  Or using Sloan’s Flexbrite to display linear lamps for an open face project

This Neon sign could have been preserved simply retrofitting on clear polycarbonate to protect the sign from the elements.  Simple maintenance could also have been done, new premium silicone GTO, re-engineer the secondary runs to assure shortest distance from first home runs, and assure no primary is tangled or mixed with secondary runs.  The sign could have lasted another 40 years with no lumen maintenance.

This bad comparison really painted mis-leading information to consumers, and readers of our industry and it mis-characterizes both LEDs and Neon as light sources


Regards,

 

 

 

 

Hope to get a response, we'll see what happens.

 

Stay Tune!

 

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. - Winston Churchill

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You just have to wonder why the trades are so against neon now.  Seems like it grows even more over time.  I LOVE neon and the way it looks.  Most of my customers do to.  But it is HARD to convince them to stay with neon when they read stuff like this, or like you have said, speak with people that tell them falsehoods about the durability/cost of LED vs neon.  I try my best any time I can to talk my customers into staying with neon if they have it already.  I have a customer right now that has 2 restaurants (with double rows of neon on ALL sides) someone has CONVINCED him he needs to change to LED and I have talked until I am blue in the face trying to convince him to leave the neon and just repair it.  I haven't been successful yet, but I am still trying. LED is just not for the application he wants to use it for.  But like they say, the customer is always right, right?  LOL

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  • !llumenati

Sell him the LEDs.   Remove and save his old neon.  

When the LEDs fail in 2-3 years, you can sell him back his neon

 

Can't fix stupid.

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1 hour ago, paul321 said:

Sell him the LEDs.   Remove and save his old neon.  

When the LEDs fail in 2-3 years, you can sell him back his neon

 

Can't fix stupid.

 

 

Haha - I had not thought about that!  Great idea.

 

 

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I look at this another way.   To many hacks are still touching neon.  Eventually those with the skills to build and service it we will be the only ones working on it and actually able to charge what its worth.  

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27 minutes ago, UFB Fabrication said:

I look at this another way.   To many hacks are still touching neon.  Eventually those with the skills to build and service it we will be the only ones working on it and actually able to charge what its worth.  

 

I keep thinking that, Steve, but it seems there are more coming in.  Seems more coming in than going out!!  I sure relish the day that does happen though!!  

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I always like to tell my clients about the Clifton Cafeteria sign when they ask me how long will neon last. The sign was uncovered during a renovation and had been illuminated for 70 some odd years. Someone sat down and figured out the operating cost at $17,000 then went on to state that LED would only have been a fraction of that. I whole heartily agreed with them,the LED would have burned out in 5 years leaving 65 years with no power draw.  

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14 hours ago, Erik Sine said:

I never did get a response from Laura Peters on this :P

I dont think they ever respond to any criticism or request for correction from the unwashed dirty masses from on the high.....

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I hope you weren't holding your breath waiting on a response .

 

Installation & Maintenance Services

Brian Phillips | expresssignandneon@sbcglobal.net | P. 812-882-3278

Express Sign & Neon | 119 S. 15th Street - Vincennes - IN 47591

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C'mon guys, have some faith. 

 

I check my email every 10 minutes and even have my calls forwarded to my cell phone. 

 

It's the moral thing to do, responding to an email to one of your fellow tradesman or women.  I mean....that is why they put their email address in their article right?  Laura Peters being an LED consultant, might even possibly need to set me straight should my facts be twisted, and need some slapping around even.

 

Keep the faith guys!

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You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. - Winston Churchill

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