It can be easy to get caught up in the excitement and anticipation of the latest digital media solutions and what they can do for your in-store experience. While there’s often very little aesthetic difference between displays, they’re not all created equal when it comes to energy efficiency.
Although the cost of power might be slowly decreasing in the UK, the volume that digital equipment can consume is still too often overlooked during the procurement process – an oversight that can have significant implications on operating costs and environmental sustainability for businesses.
What is the biggest contributor to energy use?
Lighting - it’s a power vampire. Aside from e-paper based options, digital signage displays are essentially a collection of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of tiny lights. In LCD displays, those lights are installed behind the glass (a backlight). They are constantly lit - the LCD’s job is to let light out when it decides a pixel needs to be on. By its nature, this is not hugely efficient, as the backlight is drawing power even when it’s showing black.
How to reduce the energy consumption of your digital signage
In contrast to LCD displays, switching to direct view LED displays, where each pixel is a light and individually controlled, means virtually no power is consumed when you need a black or very dark pixel, therefore reducing energy consumption overall.
Although direct view LED is generally the more efficient option, LCD is a mature technology and some manufacturers have gone to great lengths to increase the efficiency of their offerings, using very efficient LED backlight components and ‘local dimming’ which reduces the brightness of the backlight in specific areas of the display where it’s not required. The use of ambient light sensors that the display can use to automatically adjust its output are also now common and essential if you don’t want to put off customers with a display that is too bright!
Let’s look at an example:
Consider two 55” high-brightness displays designed for use in store windows. One from Dynascan, a manufacturer who specialises in the technology and another from a competing, non-specialist manufacturer with a slightly lower cost. While the specifications of both may appear similar at first glance, a closer look at the power usage reveals a pretty significant contrast.
Dynascan | Non-specialist manufacturer | |
Upfront cost | A little more expensive | Cheaper |
Power usage rating | 260W maximum 160W average usage | 420W maximum 295W average usage |
Cost per day (when operating for 16 hours a day) | 80pence /day | £1.50 /day |
Cost per year (for just one display) | £300 /year | £550 /year |
Cost per year (for a small 100 display network) | £30,000 /year | £55,000 /year |
A typical LCD display will have a usable lifetime of at least 5 years, so you’re looking at £75,000 difference over the life of the installation for a whole display network.
That saving you made on the initial procurement doesn’t look so good now, does it? Even with energy prices likely to gradually fall over the next year, the savings still add up.
What environmental considerations should I take into account?
While businesses might be aware of the impact of digital signage on their energy bills, they rarely consider the environmental cost, despite consumers becoming more interested to know which companies are doing their bit - and voting with their wallets.
The increased power consumption required to power digital signage and other equipment is a major contributor to the carbon footprint of businesses (92 tonnes extra over five years using the example above, in case you were wondering). Our carbon offsetting initiative can help with that, though, where we offer our clients the option of purchasing carbon credits, in the form of managed forests (you can read more on that in our previous blog).
What can Pixel do?
We can help calculate the total operating cost of each and every piece of digital media equipment we install, so that we can deliver the best results to fit with our clients’ budget - that includes up front payment and long term running costs.
Our 24/7 support and managed services are designed to ensure that every aspect of your digital media networks are reliable and effective. A simple way to reduce the impact of digital equipment on power bills is through power management systems that can automatically switch off equipment when they are not needed. If your business only operates during the day, this could be an option for you.
If you’re considering adding new digital equipment to your existing network, or are looking to upgrade entirely in a cost-effective, power-saving way, why not give us a call? Our expert team can ensure you enjoy the benefits of digital equipment and signage while also contributing towards the bottom line and a sustainable and environmentally friendly future.
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