[Andy Nash]

Hi, Is this still for sale ?

[Andy Nash]

sheet sizes are actually 3050 x 2030 so you will get close

[Andy Nash]

are you sure perspex is the correct spec? i would have thought they would have wanted polycarbonate, doesnt break, and fire rated… but more expensive

[Andy Nash]

With neon (generic term) there is actually two different forms of creating illumination one is using neon gas the second is using argon gas with phosphor coated tubes.

A Neon tube will last as long as the tube stays sealed 10, 20, 30 even 40 years or more, argon tubes however can sufferer from degradation of the phosphor but generally the life expectancy of the tube is around 35 – 40 thousand hours, depending on the quality of the bombarding process. Or in the case of the posting above which are 2 x argon tubes with white phosphor 77 years life expectancy.

LED’s used to state that they lasted in excess of 100,000 hours … recently that figure seems to have been getting lower and lower, i believe a lot of makes are down to around 40,000 hours.

If you go for initial cost of the LED’s over neon/cold cathode, you can easily choose cheap LED’s but generally they don’t last and they aren’t very good, if you go for good quality LED’s it usually works out a lot more expensive.

Another point is that a lot of LED companies market their LED’s as "Low energy consumption" Which they are as they are only putting out low power levels, but they are also generally outputting low light levels as well.
If you compare neon/cold cathode on a fair basis which is Lumens/watt, cold cathode beats more brands that it loses to. On the lighting side of things, many LED’s don’t even meet Part L of the building regulations.

Carbon footprint ? LED’s come from china, where they have little environmental controls. Neon/ Cold cathode is manufactured here, where we have much tighter controls on pollution and components that go into their manufacture come from Europe.

On the recycling front, the issue is that electronic components have to be carefully recycled (you will have seen pictures of all our electronics dumped in places like India), you cant just throw them in the bin, LED’s are electronic components, currently they are just thrown in the bin.

With reference to the dark night laws, you can always wire in a time switch or dim the neon, and if people have problems handling neon, perhaps some care and attention should be paid.

Neon is far from dying, it may be struggling, but that because people believe what they are told or are too scared to use neon, we manufacture neon but we also use LED’s, we have the advantage of knowing which product is best for which situation.

I am sure more points will come to mind later 🙂

[Andy Nash]

that’s another thing about neon, it can be recycled, they haven’t discussed that with LED’s yet … electronic component ?

[Andy Nash]

that’s new technology for you, overrated, under engineered and made to be thrown away.

[Andy Nash]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

And in reference to your question John we supply cold cathode and neon

Andy

mod-edit 1 see board rules :police3:

[Andy Nash]

mod-edit 2 see board rules :police3:
continual disregard for board rules will result in your account being deactivated.

Whoops Sorry 🙂 Wont happen again