The Great White Hope IV - Year 1

Erik Sine · August 19, 2025

The Great White Hope IV - Year 1

August 2025 - Present

All Questions or Feedback for this Project can be posted in the Support Thread for this Project Here

As stated in the announcement topic we are starting up the 4th round of The Great White Hope White LED Benchmark Comparison.

Some maybe asking....why we are doing this?

The answer is simple....

We have always done what others have not, or won't do.

Every couple of years or so our Electric Sign Trade goes through a cycle of hearing outrageous marketing claims. These claims are always executed but never explained.

Back in 2008 when we started the first Great White Hope (Neon vs LED) our industry was hit with all kinds of marketing claims about which light source was better than the other, Neon, LED, or Fluorescent Lighting.

In Short, after 40K hours of operation the conclusion was simple and it contradicted everything we thought we knew, and it contradicted everything the Trade Rag Magazines & Sign Associations told us at the time. In that period LEDs just hit the market and they were touted as more efficient, more green, better for the environment than Neon....those claims did not work out so well for the LED world. I'm not going to go down the all the supportive facts you can do a site search. In Short...both Light Sources are Efficient, and both light sources have their pros & cons and one light source is not best for all projects rather should be based on the project application.

Fast forward to today, no one is using Neon Lamps for backlighting Channel Letters and Cabinets under a lens or sign face. If you're using Neon it's for exposed applications and it's way more light and energy Efficient that using Neon Faux LED Silicone Junk as we all learned from Project Border Security that we ran Neon vs LED.

What we all learned in all the various Benchmark Testing what we have conducted here on the Sign Syndicate is that Neon (Merc Filled) can dim in the cold ambient temperatures because the mercury will condense, and unless you change the Neon Transformer from a 30ma unit to a larger heavier 60ma unit...which will double the current vaporize that merc in the cold, increase in power and Light Output....These light source units do gradually degrade in light output over time because the Mercury will eventually eat through the phosphor coating of the glass....UNLESS...

The Neon unit is clear red or Neon gas filled....because it's then just glass and gas with no mercury...hot or cold ambient temperatures will not affect the light source. Most importantly because it's just glass and gas these Neon lamps do not degrade in light output over time

LEDs are practically the opposite. LEDs do well in the cold and dim in hot ambient temperatures, hot temperatures can rapidly degrade/damage LED modules as a light source, but not a Neon Lamp. That is why it's important from the start to not overdrive or run too hot. Also, the LED modules light output does degrade overtime based on environmental conditions, how they are driven, and how they are protected.

Chip quality of LEDs are everything, the mere appearance of the color rendering to the light per power. As I said above...how they are driven. Poor quality chips won't produce a great amount of light, to make up for it, or to get them to produce more light you must drive them more....which results in over driving and running them hot.

Superior quality chips that are truly efficient will give you a lot of light for lesser power.

So....if we compare equal driving light source components, and one is giving us more light for a lesser cost of operation, only then....only then can we say the light source that is producing more for less.... is "more efficient".

Higher efficiency can equal longer life because it's under driven.

The Great White Hope IV Benchmark Comparison Line Up

Cabinet Section B

United LEDs (G2G) 7500K 12V .8w for Channel Letters

United LEDs (G2G) 7500K 12V 1.2w for Large Channel Letters & Cabinets

Principal Hanley's The One 7000K 24V 1w LED for Channel Letters & Cabinet (Tap Out, Hanley One Stik)

Principal Qwik Mod II 7100K 12V .8w for Channel Letters

Principal Qwik Mod II Red 12V .8w for Channel Letters

Principal Sloans Prism 6500K 12V .96w for Large Channel Letters & Cabinets

G2G Wow .8w Module (Coming Soon)

Everylite Rebel 6500K 12V 1w for Channel Letters

Everylite 2D .72w Module (Coming Soon)

Cabinet Section A

BrightON II 6500K 24V .8w for Channel Letters

BrightON II .Ruby Red 24V .8W for Channel Letters

BrightON III 6500K 12V 1.2w for Large Channel Letters & Cabinets

BrightON IV 6500K 24V 1.6w Sign Cabinets

BrightON SunFire 6500K 24V 2.4w for Large Deep Double Sided Cabinets

BrightON Lightning 6500K 12V .68w for Channel Letters (Coming Soon)

BrightON Lightning Ruby Red 12V .72W for Channel Letters

A few more surprise Vendor Modules as we go along.

All LED Modules will be equally spaced for 2LED Modules, 3LED Modules, and 4LED Module.

Cabinet Section A (Left), Cabinet Section B (Right)

The Parameters

All LED Modules will be in 5" Depth Channels that are 24" x 4.25". Sign Faces will be 1/8" 7328 White by Plexiglas grade C.

All 12V & 24V LED Modules will be driven by both France TruPower (100% Loadable) LED Power Supplies

The only fault this benchmark comparison will have is that the budget Constant Voltage LEDs like the Qwik Mod II & United LED will be handy capped in Light Output because there will not be any remote slight voltage drop coming from a TruPower LED PSU that will affect the light output drop that would occur in real life setting should a LED PSU be loaded at 80 - 85%. These LED PSU's will hardy reach any load rate....Constant Current LED Modules light output is not affected by slight voltage drops and remain consistent in lighting.

So, if we have one fault it lays here, but just know...all Constant Voltage LED modules would normally be a little dimmer in light for two reasons, TruPower LED Power Supply and for the fact that our PSU's will not be reaching anywhere near loadable capacity, and if we were to add modules down the road after initial start, it would affect these CC LED Modules Light Output in robbing voltage.

France TruPower LED Supplies

LED Module Categories

As stated above the individual Channels have a 5" Depth, 24" Width and 4.25" Height.

Category A LED Modules will be .6w to 1w for Channel Letters

Category AR LED Modules will be .6w to 1w for Channel Letters

Category B LED Modules will be 1w to 2w for Large Channel Letters & Cabinets

Category C LED Modules will be 1.2w to 3w for Large Sign Cabinets

Category D LED Modules will be 2w+ for Large Deep Double Sided Cabinets

Category A & AR Spacing

Category B Spacing

Category C Spacing

Category D Spacing

This is going to be a hard category to have equal spacing since these LED modules are a little more unconventional and unique. This Category may vary as we add more LED Modules from various vendors.

These LED modules typically use Narrow Beam Optics for use in Deep Sign Cabinets. In reality these modules should be applied in a comparison where the depth is 12" Deep or greater.

For now the Brighton SunFire is the only Module in this Benchmark and we'll just observe the Lumen Maintenance for now until more are inserted in. Possibly we may do a separate Deep Sign Cabinet Comparison.

Erik Sine · August 20, 2025

The Starting Line Up

United LED (G2G) 12V .8W 7500K

United LED (G2G) 12V 1.2W 7500K

Principal Sloan Prism 12V .96W 6500K

EveryLite Rebel 12V .96W 6500K

Principal Sloan Hanley The One 24V 1W 7000K

Principal Sloan Qwik Mod 2 12V .8W 7100K

Principal Sloan Qwik Mod 2 Red 12V .8W

Brighton SunFire 24V 2.44W 6500K

Brighton IV 24V 1.6W 6500K

Brighton III 12V 1.2W 6500K

Brighton II 24V .8W 6500K

Brighton II 24V .8W Ruby Red

Brighton Lightning 12V .68W 6500K

Brighton Lightning 12V .72W Ruby Red

What To Look For?

The aspect to pay attention to is not only the Current Foot Candle Average for brightness, but most importantly is the Foot Candles Per Watt figures. Foot Candles Per Watt tells us how efficient the LED module is operating . The higher the figure, the better chip quality.

It won't matter if a FC Average is a little Lower than another in comparison. The Higher FC Per Watt figure means that LED Module is putting out more light per watt of than others in the same category.

i.e. If you have a compartment of 1 Watt LEDs putting out a 276 FC average (Luminance) on a sign face, and a .72 Watt Compartment of LEDs is putting out a 250 FC Average....but has a much greater FC Per Watt figure than the 1 Watt LED compartment, that means if the .72 Watt LED module was also driving at 1 Watt, the FC Average would be far greater....that 250 FC AVG could be 350 FC AVG. The FC Per Watt is the efficiency.

The Higher the power in driving, the more heat that module will be operating under.

A lot of times Manufacturers will drive LEDs higher in power to make it bright. This is because the efficiency of the chip is not very good so to get it brighter they must drive it higher. More driving means more heat...getting more light from a chip that is operating lower (under driving) will give you longer life in the long run.

What We Will See Based On Case History

This Benchmark comparison is being held in San Diego, California. So we don't get extreme conditions here, at the most the highs may get to 90-100˙F, and lows to about 45˙F to 35˙F

Depending on when we do the month or bi-monthly evaluations, light output will dip in the warmer ambient temps, and the light output will rise as it get cooler. That is how LED react to ambient temperatures and we will see this in the charts.

The Lumen Maintenance or Light Degradation over the time period for LEDs is strange and unpredictable. There is no gradual curve down of Lumen Maintenance like Neon or Fluorescent Lamps. Usually these conventional light sources take a 15-20% drop in Lumen Maintenance in the first 1,000 Hours of operation then plain off gradually.

LEDs can have a gradual drop, then raise, and drop again and can plain off, or sometimes drop dramatically for a short period of time and plain again. This will be seen on the charts.

Erik Sine · August 21, 2025

Attaching the Initial Great White Hope Benchmark Comparison Results for August 2025 Below

GreatWhiteHope IV 081925.pdf

I will be updating with the first initial snapshot of the comparison.

All Questions or Feedback for this Project can be posted in the Support Thread for this Project Here

Erik Sine · January 31

Sorry for the delay.

Attaching the GWH IV November Results right below.

GreatWhiteHope IV 110625 WOA.pdf

New product additions I will have for February of 2026 will be:

GE TX GEN4 Medium 12V .9w 6500K

G2G WOW II 12V .72w Red

GE Tetra Max 24V .46w Red

The immediate results are nothing new. Typically in the first couple 1,000 hours of operation light output rises slightly as is what we are seeing with the second light result readings.

Our next results will be Feb 2026 with the new LED product additions

Erik Sine · April 30

This is the late April 2026 Update

This month we added in:

GE's TX GEN4 12v .9w 6500K LED Module

G2G's WOW II Red 12V .72W

Also Including the GWH IV Snap Shot of the Project which is also included in the April Evaluation PDF Sheet.

The most important thing to take notice i2 the FC / Watt (Foot Candles per Watt).

This is the LED Chip Quality and Efficiency, this is the amount of Light Per Power. The bigger the number the more efficient that Light Source is. You might see a Higher Wattage LED Module with a low FC/Watt value, that means it's not too efficient....could even be pushed and in some cases over driven running hot, which can result in shorter life.

I'm going to drop an example to put things in perspective.

Let's take two 2LED Modules...the Brighton - II, and the EveryLite Rebel LED Module.

The Brighton II is .8 watts, the EveryLite Rebel is almost a 1 watt Module at .96w

The 362 Foot Candle average EveryLiteRebel is brighter than the B-II Module at 348.5 FC AVG. However the B-II Module has a 108.91 Foot Candle Per Watt Average.

So if we were to boost the Module Power of the Brighton - II and make it say, a .84w module instead of a .8w module then we can project the Brighton II Module with Foot Candle per Watt of 108.91 to have a Foot Candle Average of 365.93.

The .84w Brighton - II Module would be brighter, under driven, and more efficient than the .96w EveryLite Rebel.

Now the Flip Side...

If we made the .96w EveryLite Module to a .8w Module apples to apples to the Brighton - II Module, we can project the Foot Candle of the .8watt EveryLite Module would be 301.66 instead of the 362 FC Average. You can see the Handicap here

So Boosting the power of so-so chips will give you more light for the "Wow" factor, but in some case is over driving, there is more heat involved....and like all electronics...they hate and fail with heat. This is why a lot of LED MFG's recently make a 2 LED almost 1 watt Module and sell for $40 a bag....

Just something to take note of.....

GWH Snap Shot 0426 copy 1200 2.jpg