In spite of evidence to the contrary, it seems to be human nature to believe that more of a good thing is a better thing. Using light emitting diodes (LED’s) for digital signage is an example where more is definitely not better.

LED’s are the most efficient lighting technology currently available. As noted in a previous article, they use much less energy and last much longer than incandescent lighting. Even compared to compact fluorescent lighting (CFL’s), LED’s last six time as long and use half the energy.

So how could manufacturers mess up such efficient lighting? By designing digital signs that use up to 10,000 LED’s. Even at around 5 watts per LED, that’s a lot of power. In addition to the energy for lighting, these signs also need to power an air condition system to cool its electronic components on hot days. As a result, digital billboards have their highest electrical usage at the same time of peak demand during summer.

According to a recent report on digital signage energy by Gregory Young, the annual energy usage of a 14 ft by 48 ft LED billboard is nearly 15 times that of an average household. The report also documents that the number of digital billboards is proliferating exponentially, up 300% since 2007. Young notes that