FAQ: Why Choose An LED Exit Sign?

One of the most frequently asked exit sign questions is, why is choose an LED exit sign?

LED Exit Signs are popular because of their low energy consumption, long lifespan, and affordable prices. A variety of styles and designs are available, one of which will work for you.

Most exit signs used in commercial and public buildings today are illuminated by internally mounted LEDs, instead of incandescent or halogen bulbs, as they used to be. Why this change? Why would you want to choose an LED powered exit sing over the other options? What’s the advantage of LEDs over other lighting?

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Essentially there are two major differences between LED exit signs and other types of illumination for exit signs. First of all, LEDs last an average of 60,000 hours, 50 times longer than incandescent bulbs. This saves you money, not only in the cost of bulbs, but in the maintenance time for replacing those bulbs. The second difference is that LEDs consume about 1/10 the power of incandescent bulbs for the same amount of energy consumption.

Evolution of LED Exit Signs

It wasn’t until the last few years that LEDs started replacing incandescent bulbs in a number of applications. Before that time, the LEDs available on the market weren’t bright enough for general lighting applications, only for indicator lights on electronic equipment. Modern LEDs consume as much as 1 watt of power, producing the same amount of light as a 10 watt incandescent bulb. So, 4 of these new high-power LEds, consuming only 4 watts of power, produce as much light as was previously supplied by the two 20 watt incandescent bulbs previously installed in an exit light. 

Although regulations only require exit signs to be lighted when the facility is occupied, most facilities run their exit signs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Keeping in mind that one person in the building is enough to require that the signs be on, it really makes more sense to leave them on, than to turn them off. For this reason, exit signs are normally wired to their own circuit within the building’s wiring grid.

Cost Savings Comparison

Let’s compare the 10 year cost of installing LED exit signs in a small office/warehouse building to that of installing exit signs that use Halogen bulbs in the same facility. To keep things simple, we’ll assume that there are only two exits to worry about, the front door where customers come in, and a back service entrance. We won’t bother putting lights over the loading dock doors, as they don’t have stairs. So, we’ll need a total of 4 light fixtures, two in the office area, one for the front door and one for the door leading into the warehouse area; and two in the warehouse area, one for the service door and one leading into the office area. Please keep in mind that all figures shown are for 4 units.

There is an additional savings that the numbers don’t show, that is the intangible savings of added security for the personnel in the building. Incandescent exit signs normally had 2 bulbs in them, not because they needed two, but for safety reasons, so that the sign would still be lit, even if one bulb went out. With LED exit signs, the longer life of the LEDs adds greatly to the security of your personnel.