If you’ve put a lot of time and money into designing your business’s outdoor signage, you want it to stand out for as much of the day as possible. You or whomever you hired to take care of your signs had to handle getting the right permits from your city or municipality, designing the sign, building, printing, installing and everything else that goes along with decorating your outdoor space in a way that reflects your business — of course you want the work to stand out!
So now, whether you’re finally done with your outdoor signage project or still working on getting it in place, you need to decide the best way to light it.
If you’re like most, you want your signage to catch as much attention as possible, but in a way that’s convenient — and ideally not outside of your budget requirements. You’ve probably considered both hardwiring and solar solutions, but how can you know which one will serve you best over time?
The trick is to know the pros and the cons for each lighting type, down to the last nitty-gritty detail. Here at Integra, we’ve helped many companies find their exact lighting match. Making the right decision really comes down to the way you feel about each option’s pros and cons as they relate to your space, budget, know-how (if you plan on implementing some DIY installing).
By the time you’ve made it through the details of this post — and we promise, we’ll try to make even the nitty-gritty as un-boring as possible — you should know which lighting option best suits your needs and why.
Pros of Solar Lighting to Illuminate Your Outdoor Signage
First, let’s cover the best features solar lighting has working in its favor:
- Easy installation: Probably the most appealing overall positive of solar lighting to someone looking into their options for outside signs would be the ease with which it’s installed. As long as you have somewhere to place or mount a solar panel, you should be able to take care of the installation by yourself or with a small team. It can be as simple as staking a few small lights into the ground or mounting a panel to the side of your building. Just make sure any permanent exterior installations meet municipal guidelines before you make an investment.
- Long-term affordability: Let’s be real, this is a big one for most businesses looking to go with solar energy for just about anything. Even if it costs more at installation, solar lighting can save on energy bills down the line. The fact that you can easily place the solar panels also adds to affordability if hardwiring would be a lengthy, difficult ordeal for your team or if you’d need to hire a professional for the process.
- Low commitment: Most of the time, solar lighting tends to be a more futureproof option. Unless you have a power supply right next to your outdoor signage, you’ll find that solar lighting is more moveable than the alternative. If you’re unsure your signage will stay in the same location for years to come, or you think you may want to make changes to the lighting angles or overall outdoor setup, you can simply move the solar panels and lights to whatever location they’ll work best in, provided that space gets direct sunlight.
- Environmental stewardship: If your team is trying to lower their carbon footprint and takes protecting the environment seriously, solar might be a responsible way to draw attention to your signage without pulling from the grid. For something as small as the lighting outside a single business, solar energy is a totally viable, renewable resource. And hey, at the end of the day, every little bit counts!
- Popularity: Eco-friendly products and methods are top of mind for many consumers today. This is true for some industries more than others, but if your primary audience values environmentally conscious business practices, displaying your solar panels clearly for all to see will show your character and send the message that your values match those of your clientele. Plus, you can let people know on your site or social media that you’re using a renewable resource.
Cons of Solar Lighting for Outdoor Sign Illumination
While it does have many strengths, solar-powered lights can still present a headache if your building location or business goals aren’t an ideal fit. Some of the drawbacks include:
- Placement requirements: By definition, you of course can’t place a solar panel in any spot on your property and expect it to draw power. You’ll want to aim for at least four hours of direct sunlight to maintain optimal performance. This demand alone takes solar out of the running for many businesses without much direct light, whether that’s due to site positioning, nearby obstacles or geographic location.
- Storage limitations: No matter how much direct, peak sunlight your solar cell gets on any given day, it’ll have a limited supply of power to provide over the coming days. Solar panel batteries can only store so much energy before they need rejuvenation, and that period of time ranges from one to five days. In other words, you can’t store up weeks worth of solar power during the summer and use it at will when the days grow shorter.
- Unpredictable availability: Right in line with the point above, lights powered exclusively by solar energy function when they have adequate access to direct sunlight, and they stop working if they don’t. They might have a few days of energy stored in a battery, but if you find yourself dealing with days, weeks or months of dreary days, you may also have to accept unlit signage until the weather turns around.
- Dimness: Once again, any lack of power or low energy will affect your light’s performance, and that can sometimes come in the form of dimmer lights than desired. With solar power, it’s not just an on/off setup. Rather, you’ll notice a drop in brightness if your panels aren’t drawing enough power. Given the work you put into designing the perfect outdoor signage, you certainly don’t want dim lighting to throw a wrench in your marketing.
- Upkeep: If your panels and lenses aren’t cleaned regularly, they may become less effective over time, leading to dimness and sometimes full cutoff of functionality.
- Aesthetic issues: While it’s possible to do solar tastefully, the bottom line is that there’s going to be a panel, if not multiple panels. If you’re looking to power a large light 24/7/365, you’ll likely want to aim for a larger panel, which means finding the right place for that panel to fit into your carefully designed layout. Fortunately, you have options: Small stake lights that push directly into the ground in front of their lighting target tend to have cute, tiny panels that don’t make much of a dent in a well-designed space. And if your building is on the more minimalist/modern side, the panels could fit right in.
Pros of Hardwiring a Setup to Power Outside Sign Lights
Next up comes the list of benefits you stand to gain if you choose hardwired lighting for the space outside your business’s storefront:
- All-day reliability: With hardwired lighting, you don’t have to rely on sometimes unpredictable weather conditions for sign lights at their brightest, fullest potential. It’s a plug and chug solution that means direct electric power for your lights in all situations other than a power outage — and even then, a generator could easily save the day.
- Inconspicuous placement: With hardwired lighting, it’s possible to completely hide the way you get power to your lights. You wouldn’t want to see wires and cables all over the place detracting from your site’s appearance, and some people consider solar panels a similar hindrance. Fortunately, these cables can be mostly if not entirely obscured via direct connection to your building if it’s close and externally powered, or trenches dug into the ground leading to a power source.
- Consistent brightness: Unless a bulb blows out or there’s an electrical issue at your location — and bonus points for sign lights that clue you in on such an issue — you won’t see your hardwired lighting reaching different levels of brightness with a direct power source. Instead, the brightness will remain constant and reliable day in and day out, not dependent on changing or uncontrollable external factors like the weather.
Cons of Hardwired Lighting for Signs Outside Your Business
Finally, be sure to consider some of the drawbacks that come along with hardwiring before deciding which solution is the right one for your property and goals. Those drawbacks can include:
- Difficult installation: If you have an external outlet or power source near your sign, you can go ahead and bypass this con, as it won’t apply to you. In many situations, however, business owners want to run a cable from their sign light to a fairly distant location. Sidestepping the issue of unattractive cords everywhere can sometimes mean digging trenches and getting creative with the power acquisition.
Cables to hide: Solar panels aren’t free of cords, but they’re typically close enough to the technology they’re powering for it to be a non-issue. On the contrary, hardwired devices need a direct grounded connection, and sometimes one can’t be reached for several feet. If your external lighting is far from a power source, you’ll likely need to run a cable, which can be unsightly. To hide them, you can dig a trench so that they’re shallowly buried, but it takes time and costs money, adding to the complex nature of the setup. You could leave the cables out, but they’ll look messy and potentially present a tripping hazard.- Involved expenses: Most people have a cap for the amount of work they’re willing to DIY, especially when it comes to complex processes. If you’re not an electrician and you don’t have one on your team, you might find yourself paying a hefty fee to get someone out to your site to install safe, well-hidden light system.
Choosing and Ordering the Right Exterior Lighting for Your Business Signs
So the time for you to decide whether or not you want your exterior signage lit up has come and gone, and you chose a resounding yes. That decision is half the battle, and hopefully, any confusion you may have had about these two primary options has been laid to rest with your reading of this post.
What’s next, then? If you haven’t already, now might be the right time to look into your municipality’s guidelines for outdoor installations to make sure you don’t run up against any regulatory problems moving forward. Installation is no easy feat, and while taking a DIY route may be your preferred method, you may also want to consider what it would look like for you to work with Integra throughout the selection and installation procses.
Learn more about the potential regulations you’ll need to look into, and you’ll be well on your way to the best-lit signs in town. Or, if you’re planning to install your signage and lighting around the same time, reach out to an Integra specialist to get started.
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