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It was apparently felt in our shop yesterday - we're not far from Rocco/Signworksinc - except I was in Vancouver when it happened. They get quakes a little more often out there and they were making fun of all the East Coasters on the radio. It was utter devastation downtown, though - see photo evidence below:

It took all of about 2 seconds for me to start hearing "Happy Birthday Mr President" being sung in a sexy voice. We know she can wear high heels and just the right outfits, but can K-Girl sing?

LEDs are actually more efficient than Sodium (in terms of lum/W), so I have no doubt that the light is more or less equal, but even if actual measured lumens are a little lower, it could be fine since cooler color temps are more more receptive to the human eye. Our visual acuity and peripheral visual are vastly better at cooler color temps than with the yellow-orange of Sodium lamps. If we were talking end users or business paying, it would be a tougher sell - but these are local governments and utilities putting up the money, so the bigger picture has to be considered in terms of power factor, generation and distribution, long term power planning, etc... Switching to LEDs may be very costly, but if they can offset population growth in terms of increased power needs, we're talking billions in savings of not having to build new power plants and transmission systems. It would be nice to see those calculations and reports, for sure.

Using the math n your article, it puts the value of each street light at $333. I'm not sure if this is fixture cost or installed, but let's go with it. 6000 fixtures x $333 = ~$2 million. Saving $300K per year puts the payback at 7 years, which isn't so good. 41,000 fixtures x $333 = ~$13.65 million, to save $2.4 mil per year = about 5.6 years payback on energy alone. Thing is, the payback number isn't the only value to look at... What do these cost to maintain over their life, compared to existing or competing products? Union guys in bucket trucks cost $100s per hour, which could adds some sort of saving. More importantly, if these fixtures are high PF (very likely so), then the utility can save a whole lot on the generation and transmission side - maybe even enough to bring the payback down from 7 years to 4. The city saves money on their bills and the hydro company saves on power generation. Add in the ability to dim or reduce power during non-peak hours, etc, and there are further savings available. Any savings in this regard can offset the need for new power generation that would otherwise be needed just based on population growth. 41,000 fixtures saving say 60W ea would be over a million kw/h per year (1 mW) - the size of a small power plant. How much would the new power generation cost if it had to be built? That's a pretty huge savings also. Lastly is the improved visibility. I know it's not really part of the discussion here - but what price do we put on increased safety? They have to be efficient, reliable products of course - which not all LEDs are (see Columbus, Ohio in your link), but there's more involved that the simple upfront cost divided by energy use.

Interesting about AZ, but their reservations about heat are not misplaced. It's not that LED systems can't work, but they are far more reliable in more temperate or northern locales than they would be in a desert environment. Seattle recently announced that the first 6000 street lights are doing very well and they are going to continue until the total number of units is around 41,000. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/7/11 Interesting that the Seattle story was posted the day before the Tempe one (the same source as your news release above), but you chose to bypass the positive story for one that is less so. I'm not saying either is right or wrong, just curious about what gets posted and why - they're both on the same topic and equally newsworthy, no?

It's entirely reasonable to put efficiency standards into place, but they should not be technology specific. If incandescents can be made to meet the higher standards - which they can - then they should be available on the shelf next to anything else that meets the minimum requirements also.

Ultrasonic would be extremely tough, as the materials need to be shaped to mate in a certain way, and then the energy is applied to very focused locations at a time. There are companies that have portable equipment to do remote plastic welding, so it might not hurt to make a couple of calls, but IIRC, PC is one of the tougher materials to work with. Most of the time, sign companies would just install 2 pieces with a small lap joined to the backside of one of the piece's edges, which fills any potential gaps and stops light leaks - but you still get a line of some kind as less light comes through the lapped layer. In this case, the white laps would still show a white line in between where the colored vinyl joins up. Most of the time it becomes a height/distance thing, where you have to be up close on your bucket to see it enough to care. From the ground or driving by, most solutions will probably look just fine.

I'm guessing it's because the 4th of July is around the corner? Hopefully we can go back to the old look then.

It's small money to invest into technology that will save billions in hydro usage over the long run, but if they're going to be doing this, I'd rather it go to universities and other specialty startups. Companies like Philips and Cree have large amounts of private money already being spent on major R&D, so this ends up boosting revenues for already profitable companies.

Bosnian Mulsims lived in a diverse country, though, as they had to mesh with both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox faiths under the old Yugoslav flag and even today, Bosnia remains mixed with strong Croat and Serb populations (almost 1/3 of each). People from places further east are not used to having to integrate, as they live in largely theocratic societies and are used to having the prevailing 'rule' simply forced on everyone. It has to be understood that there's a difference between being a Muslim and being an Islamist - the latter being the problem to western adaptation.

I hope CAO has deep pockets, because they're about to get buried in legal fees.

It's more of that 'cafe' themed look and we've seen many of them done around here. Rather than rip the exteriors apart and rebuild, the new exteriors are simply being built right over top the existing McD trademark roofs, etc...

It's a big step for them to have made (finally!), so putting out a good product was critical, even in a saturated marketplace. Having seen these first hand at the show - even being a competitor - I can vouch that EGL has not taken a shortcut here and is putting out a good product they can stand behind. They are constant current, so no issues with variances in voltage and based around quality Nichia LEDs. Is it safe to assume we won't see any more of those "neon vs LED" flyers that EGL has put out in the past, or will they switch to EGL LED vs cheap LEDs flyers? ;)

I guess me reply is a couple of days late, huh? Erik, Kirstie, Sean and Gary - it was good to spend time with all of you again, and meet some new people as well. I had a good time this trip, once I caught up on my sleep that is. Mark's bag took a Hangover-type trip around Vegas, but I got it back to him the next day. The ziplining was a blast - thank you Manuel and Stephanie. Too bad it was so cold on that rooftop and the line was hidden from view on the ground. In hindsight I'm kinda happy my girl didn't come. There is a saying about not bringing sand to the beach ;)

If you didn't post this thread, I never would have known about the video. We've all had customers like the one you were portraying - every business does - so it was funny in that way, but naming names could probably have been skipped without affecting the message. I don't suppose you wanna tell us who the inspiration was? lol

The thing to remember is that the vendor has no control over whether your sign is 8' off the ground or 80'. As such, it's very difficult for them to agree to pitch in for labor in every circumstance, and most warranties will list some sort of limitations because if this. If they do go above and beyond and cover part of your labor, consider it the sign of a company that is willing to develop a good working relationship and stick with them - even if this means paying $2000 for your next order from them when you had a rival bid for $1800. Loyalty works both ways.

Hey man, when I was doing signs in the Cayman Islands, they sometimes sent my out on a bike to do installs or repairs. At least that dude has a trailer - I had one of those wire mesh baskets on the handlebars of a girls mountain bike!

Est ut verum?

There's an acrylic shop across the street with a pro setup. I'll take a picture with my phone next time I'm over there and post it here afterwards.

You basically want a couple of rails down your 2 fixed sides. Between them, you want materials supports you can slide back and forth and between those supports, you want to put in your long heating elements. It's not too hard, you just have to play with the temp settings. You can actually buy ready-to-play kits or full tables for reasonable money... http://www.craftics.net/ShowItems.aspx?Category=86 http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=291& The trick is setting up your jigs and forms to do precise repeats, getting good with methylene chloride and keeping some good weights and clamps around. Here's a how-to I just found (google is your friend): http://www.bishoptechnology.com/proj_acrylic_v2.html

I get in late Wednesday and leave Saturday night... will have to review timing of the various get together and confirm with everyone if I can make their events or not. I'm coming solo, after all.

It's probably a case of some media disphit equating anyone using a swing stage to a window washer. Stages are used by a whole lot of people for different reasons, but to a layman swing stage = window cleaning.

Huh, so Manuel is an Aquarian too? Mine was on the 16th.

I read an interesting article the other day that the 'green' movement was joined and is being pushed by a lot of the same people who needed a new 'ism' after communism more or less fall by the wayside in the 80s. Some people need a doctrine to guide them and to try to force on others. I'm in no way suggesting it applies to all who support a green mindset, but you can see how some who needed something new to follow would be drawn to environmentalism as their new cause to champion, as the whole 'sacrifice for the greater good' mindset does exist in both. Most causes end up being hijacked by the extremists and environmentalism is no different. It's a valid thing to want to protect the environment, but a lot of people buy into what the extremists are pushing - often for their own benefit - rather than more rational, pragmatic solutions to real problems.

Please consider us confirmed for the Blue and Green comparisons. I think the size lends itself well to our EconoStrokes, which is what we'll be sending. No border products, though. We've stayed away from this intentionally, but I have another company that I will put you in touch with for an "LED neon flex" type product.