Recommended spotlight to illuminate aluminum sign on storefront

[WhatsYourSign?]

We're going to be hanging a 5'x12' aluminum sign above a storefront and they'd like to illuminate it.

Can anybody recommend a good solution for illuminating an aluminum sign like this? Specific light recommendations would be great.


Thanks in advance!

 

[signbrad]

We're going to be hanging a 5'x12' aluminum sign above a storefront and they'd like to illuminate it.

Can anybody recommend a good solution for illuminating an aluminum sign like this? Specific light recommendations would be great.


Thanks in advance!

I would not use spotlights to illuminate a sign. They are not suitable. They emit a circle of light rather than provide wide-angle illumination for the entire sign. The light from spotlights will not be even or effective. The look is visually unappealing, even amateurish.
You want floodlights, not spotlights.

I have used outdoor fluorescent floodlight fixtures for signs of this size with great effect. Once a person asked if a 4x16 sign on a mansard roof that I had hand painted and lit with fluorescents was internally-lit! That's how even and brilliant the lighting was.

The trick is to not get too close to the face with the fixtures. Mount them 6 to 8 feet away from the face so the light will be even. You can mount them on the end of conduit, but if you use EMT they will bounce. EMT is too springy for this, in my opinion. Use intermediate or rigid conduit instead.

Installation instructions say to mount them down-facing only. However, I have up-faced them successfully (they come with acrylic covers). I may have added weep holes, but I can't remember if I did this every time.
They come in single lamp and twin lamp fixtures and can be ganged. I have spliced as many as four in a row.

I got mine from N. Glantz.

Of course, there are other types of floodlights available.


Brad in Kansas City

 

[WhatsYourSign?]

I would not use spotlights to illuminate a sign. They are not suitable. They emit a circle of light rather than provide wide-angle illumination for the entire sign. The light from spotlights will not be even or effective. The look is visually unappealing, even amateurish.
You want floodlights, not spotlights.

I have used outdoor fluorescent floodlight fixtures for signs of this size with great effect. Once a person asked if a 4x16 sign on a mansard roof that I had hand painted and lit with fluorescents was internally-lit! That's how even and brilliant the lighting was.

The trick is to not get too close to the face with the fixtures. Mount them 6 to 8 feet away from the face so the light will be even. You can mount them on the end of conduit, but if you use EMT they will bounce. EMT is too springy for this, in my opinion. Use intermediate or rigid conduit instead.

Installation instructions say to mount them down-facing only. However, I have up-faced them successfully (they come with acrylic covers). I may have added weep holes, but I can't remember if I did this every time.
They come in single lamp and twin lamp fixtures and can be ganged. I have spliced as many as four in a row.

I got mine from N. Glantz.

Of course, there are other types of floodlights available.


Brad in Kansas City

View attachment 136091

Thanks Brad, that's great feedback.

Unfortunately we don't have 6-8 ft available to any side of the sign in question so I'm thinking we'll want to use multiple flood lights mounted below the sign pointed up to get full coverage.


I've signed up for an account with N. Glantz, thank you for the recommendation.

 

[signbrad]

Thanks Brad, that's great feedback.

Unfortunately we don't have 6-8 ft available to any side of the sign in question so I'm thinking we'll want to use multiple flood lights mounted below the sign pointed up to get full coverage.


I've signed up for an account with N. Glantz, thank you for the recommendation.

That should work. I have seen highway boards illuminated by a single up-pointed high-intensity floodlight. It seems that some of these are mounted just below the bottom of the sign and maybe 10 feet in front. And pointed almost straight up, but not quite.

Brad