Care and feeding of a Neon sign?

Does anyone know anything about Neon signs? I just bought my first one yesterday (for the Dodge Neon, it is a neon Neon sign, get it?), and have it hanging out in my shop. It will see temperature extremes from about 100°F in the summer to 0°F in the winter. Is it ok to leave the sign out in the cold weather, basically year 'round? Is any special maintenance needed for Neon signs? What is the expected life span of an average Neon sign, maybe in hours of runtime. Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm completely new to Neon lighting, and I figure someone on here has to know something.

-Keith

I think Neon lights are more or less just like flouressent lights only with different gases and phosphers. Not the exact same thing, mind you, but closely related.

Assuming a properly installed, loaded and cared for sign, most sign shops will quote you a lifespan of 30k hours, or three and a half years of 24/7 use. A life span as long as 80k hours is not uncommon though. Some colors use phosphors which die a lot faster than the raw neon tube colors. Older green tubes have a very short life, down to 20% of their output in as little 8k hours. But there is a new green phosphor they are using now that will stay above 80% for the same length as the life of the tube.

EDIT: fixed horrible grammar, spelling and general illegibility...

That's good to know that it should last that long. I only plan on having it lit up maybe 5-10 hours a week normally, so hopefully it will last many years for me. Thanks for the info.

-Keith

I believe the pink neon lights have no phosphor. That's just the color you get from the neon gas. If I'm wrong I'm sure I will be quickly educated.

It`s the orangey red ones that are phosphor-less. Clear tubes = neon penning mixture (neon with a trace of argon to make the striking voltage lower). May even be pure neon in tube signs, I`m not sure.

Also I believe in the early days before the dangers of UV light were fully understood, mercury and argon were used in clear tubes to make blue light. Today of course, the same gases get used (as well as Xenon) but with the phosphors that turn that nasty UV into the pretty rainbow of colours that they love so much in Vegas /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I think the pink "neon" color is made by a phosphor on the inside of the glass tube with an argon & mercury vapour fill gas mixture. You don't want to break one of those tubes open and breathe in the mercury. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
The phosphor powder probably isn't very good for you either.

Straight neon gas in a crystal clear tube should give you a piercing red-orange (leaning towards red) color.
If the gas fill is mostly helium with a little neon, you'll get a pinkish or salmon colored light.

I've been blowing glass and working with neon for over 23 years. My avatar is actually a close-up of a sclupture I made with a neon umbrella... you can just see the bottom of the umbrella handle. The main factor on how long a tube will last is how well it was processed. The electrodes are attached to a "Bombarding Transformer" usually 50,000 volts! The tube is turned on and the voltage makes the electrodes turn white-hot, vaporizing any impurities in the tube. It's the impurities that lead to premature tube death. A properly processed tube will last a VERY long time - 24/7 for 30 years or more! On commercially processed tubes time is money so they very rarely do the job right and the tubes don't last that long. They also use cheaper electrodes that break down faster releasing impurities into the tube. Heat will shorten tube life because the electrodes break down faster. The good news is that if your sign fails in a couple of years a good neon shop can replace the electrodes and re-pump it with gas, basically making it new again.

joel