Illuminated signage runs longer hours than almost anything else a business owns, sits outdoors in a coastal climate, and is the first thing customers see. It is also the installation most likely to be left until something fails.
This covers what sign lighting needs electrically, and what determines whether it keeps working.
Signage is a permanent outdoor circuit
A sign is not an appliance that happens to be outside. It needs a supply designed for the location, with equipment rated for weather exposure and a means of isolating it for service.
- A dedicated circuit, so a sign fault does not take other equipment with it
- A local disconnect, so it can be isolated safely for maintenance
- Weather-rated enclosures, connections and cable entries
- Control — timer, photocell or building management — rather than leaving it to memory
Different sign types, different requirements
Channel letters
Individually illuminated letters mounted to the building. Each element needs supply, so the wiring is distributed across the sign and the penetrations through the wall need sealing properly — a frequent water entry point.
Cabinet and lightbox signs
A single enclosure with the illumination inside. Simpler electrically, but the enclosure has to stay sealed and ventilated, and access for servicing has to be designed in.
Halo and backlit lettering
Light thrown onto the wall behind the letters. Very dependent on even output, which makes a partial failure obvious immediately.
Free-standing and monument signs add an underground supply and a foundation, and both are worth getting right the first time in ground that floods.
Why signs fail here
Sign failures are overwhelmingly environmental rather than electrical design faults.
Salt air corrodes connections and fixings. Water finds its way into enclosures through seals that have hardened or fixings that have loosened. Sun degrades lenses and plastics. Wind loading works at the mountings continuously, and storm season tests all of it at once.
The result is usually a partly-lit sign, which reads worse to a customer than one that is off.
Permissions come before installation
Signage is regulated locally, and the rules cover size, placement, brightness and sometimes hours of illumination. Requirements vary between jurisdictions across South Florida.
In a leased or multi-tenant property there is usually a second layer: the landlord or association has its own criteria. Establishing both before fabrication avoids the expensive version of this problem, which is a finished sign that cannot be installed as designed.
Maintenance and access
A sign that cannot be reached safely will not be maintained, and the time to solve that is at installation.
- A disconnect positioned where a technician can reach it
- Mounting that allows service without dismantling the sign
- Fixings selected for a coastal environment rather than a generic one
- A periodic check of seals, fixings and connections, ideally before storm season
Partly-lit signage is the visible result of skipping this, and it tends to be read by customers as something about the business rather than about the sign.
Hours make efficiency worth attention
Signage often runs from dusk to well past closing, every night of the year. That makes it one of the few lighting loads where operating hours, not wattage, dominate consumption.
Controls are the lever. A photocell handles dusk, a timer handles the end of the evening, and together they stop a sign lighting an empty street until dawn.
Getting signage installed properly
Sign lighting is permanent outdoor electrical work in a demanding environment, and it is worth specifying accordingly rather than treating it as part of the fabrication.
KRW Electric is a licensed electrical contractor (EC13012832) serving South Florida. See our commercial electrical services, or get in touch.
Reviewed by Kyle White, KRW Electric Company LLC — licensed electrical contractor EC13012832.
