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By westco5
MOONSHINE BEACH
Located right in central Pacific Beach, a community in San Diego
Moonshine Flats opened up a sister location similar to the East Village location. Bar, club...food, and of course live country music bands perform. Similarly to Moonshine Flats, Moonshine Beach transformed The Typhoon Saloon and Fred's Mexican Food.
Originally this building was a bowling alley, guess not many knew Pacific Beach had a bowling alley.
The change of theme by ownership brought the first Country Music venue to Pacific Beach
One difference Moonshine Beach will have that Moonshine Flats didn't, is adding in four decorative huge 8 Cold Cathode (Neon) Stars for decorative lighting.
One important aspect we did for these lighting star structures was paint them a textured flat Matthews PPG Paint finish so the Lamps will not reflect off of them, that way the light sinks right into the background and the Cold Cathode Lamps stay defined and not fuzz in the evening sky
Loading up and getting ready to install
Originally the stars were going to be Red, White, and Blue but it was thought that it might be too loud and take away from the Moonshine Beach sign. The desire was something more subtle, so to match the sign it's self the deco Neon lamps were 18mm 4500 Tri-Phoshor Lamps
And time for a selfie
Prepping the new Moonshine Beach sign for install. Both sign configurations and theme are one of the same, just from Flats to Beach.
INSTALL DAY
Selfie 2
....and done!
Just as stated in our article on Moonshine Flats
Now Pacific Beach has a new bright city night scape to light up the sky.
West Coast Sign Company, San Diego CA, 92131 (858) 689-0080 • info@westcoastsignco.com
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By westco5
Here's one of our favorite jobs that we produced and installed locally here in San Diego.
RAY'S TENNIS
located in Hill Crest close to downtown San Diego.
So let's start from the beginning....
This project starts with an old building that's about to get renovated. This landmark Tennis Store has been around the neighborhood since the 60's and Ray's Tennis is a very known location if you play tennis in San Diego.
For a high light output green to match their colors we went with a very small millimeter diameter lamp glass made by Voltarc, 12mm Green. The smaller the diameter Neon glass, the brighter the light output.
Our choice of high voltage secondary wire conductors is always the best....Silicone! Silicone is the best quality for neon signs and it won't degrade as fast as conventional wiring
One of the cool added parts of this jobs is the Stainless Steel overhang face they added for the renovation. Love the look, and we had a part to play to make sure it would make the single stroke of Voltarc's NeoBlue (Purple) pumped red would be applicable for installation.
Doing a single stroke Neon border in this case Purple can sometimes be a challenge when it comes to installation but I made sure that the 56 liner feet would not be an issue. I wanted everything balanced for this project by NOT doing a conventional wiring installation for out long single lamp purple Neon.
To do that the Neon transformer must be balanced, and that comes with installing the transformer in "Mid-Point Ground" Something not many companies do, and one of the reasons why Neon can be problematic and cause multiple maintenance problems over time. Most Neon issues happen at the hands of installation
By doing a Mid-Point Return I turned this 15kv tranny into two separate 7,500kv's. Most importantly, I didn't run 20' of GTO (wiring) from Transformer Terminal to the outer most electrodes like you see in so many cases (Conventional Series Wiring) which result in numerous maintenance calls down the road. Doing a Mid-Point ground I started at the center of my Neon Load making my runs only 18" from the Transformer secondary Terminals to the first set of electrodes that will work their way out bringing the outermost lamps or connection back to the transformer. If you were to take a High Voltage Probe and measure at the Mid-Point ground terminal you would have about 0 volts. Doing the installation this way assures VERY long life with the secondary conductors as short as possible.
CONVENTIONAL WIRING VS MID-POINT RETURN WIRING
Here in the Transformer in a ventilated box which will breath much easier then the ones located behind the wall for the Lettering. I have the two short secondary home runs splitting the 56' linear lamp foot load in half, with the return path coming from the outer most lamp connectors of the load. The Service Switch and double nutted ground with the panel ground at the bottom (structural) with the service ground which is the Transformer ground at the top. Before anyone asks, YES this is a shot before the Transformer box is sitting on top of treated studs!
There are many Industry components used for our trade, a lot do not get used properly or are never used and again, this can be problematic for Neon Lighting & Signs when not properly used or installed. Here is a good shot of outdoor wet location rated Neon electrode connections so no moisture gets in.
Finishing up and closing out this deal
And of course the final night shots
The Tennis Ball we used a 15mm Tri-Phosphor White by Voltarc as well called "Tri-Lite" Tri-Phosphors are a multi-blend of high quality phosphors that are about 40% brighter than conventional phosphor Neon caoted lamps and will stay whiter longer over time. Reason being, when it comes to Hg (Mercury) filled lamps the mercury will crystallize and eventually eat through the phosphor which is what makes these lamps dim over time.
What does this custom sign total cost of operation cost a consumer to run?
Total package 784 watts, 8 hours per day @ 365 days a year roughly $.12kwh = $274.71 as an annual cost of operation for wall sign mixed in with some linear border tube lighting, NOT BAD!!
Despite the popular mis-informed information about Lighting efficiency on Neon, we can see $274 a year operating for 8 Hours a day is NOT bad for electric advertising!
West Coast Sign Company, San Diego CA, 92131 (858) 689-0080 • info@westcoastsignco.com
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