Neon Signs Can be High Maintenance for Commercial Properties

Neon signs light up, flash and do everything to attract people's attention. Unfortunately, this attention isn't always the attention the owner of the sign wants and can get very expensive. Too many hooligans see a neon sign as a good target for vandalism if situated in the wrong place or area of town.

For anyone thinking of installing a neon sign as a means of attracting customers, I would advise you to think again. Neon signs are best displayed at night so unless you are a night-time business, a neon sign may not be the ideal answer for you.

Large external neon signs have become a prime target for hooligans who throw rocks, bottles, cans and anything else they can lay their miserable little paws on in order to break the light. Some of these half-wits think it's great fun to destroy something that they can see disappear. This gives these cretins a sense of power and you yet another expensive insurance claim and the inconvenience of having it fixed and cleaning up the mess that this incident has caused.

Many insurance companies today won't even insure against neon sign breakages because they have just become too expensive and constant. If you can get insurance for sign damage, then you may be limited to making a limited number of claims. Also ask your insurance company if there is an excess to be paid (there usually is!) for every claim made for the repair of a neon sign. Over a very short period of time, you may find you could have purchased any number of different types of signs to advertise your business.

If you still think a neon sign is the best answer to advertise your business, then try for a sign that vandals can't readily access. Putting a neon sign inside your office or shop window can be a deterrent or a more expensive exercise. Many cretins will think twice before they break a shop window but if they decide that your sign is still 'fair game' then the expense of paying for a shop front window should deter you from using that type of sign again. Shop front windows may be hardier but they are three times as expensive too.

The other downside to a neon light to advertise your business is the electricity costs. Even with the use of a fluorescent globe it will still be powered by electricity and with the push on for using less power, will your customers be likely to see your business as wasting energy?

Many neon signs today are solar powered but this can only benefit you if the sign is placed outside to get powered up by the sun. So vandals then can destroy your solar system as well as the light.

Neon signs today have really become a thing of the past. Long gone are the days when streets were lit-up with flashing, happy, bright and cheery lights inviting customers to visit their stores or to do some 'window-shopping'. The maintenance costs to keep them lit has simply become far too expensive.

Climate Change and Alternative Energy Urgently Needed

Climate Change is happening all around us and it's time we got our heads out from the dust now blowing over the Sydney Harbour bridge out to the Pacific Ocean and actually starting taking this problem of climate change very seriously!

Alternative energy sources are urgently needed along with some political will and legislation to keep lobbyist away from our elected representatives!

Solar Power Provides Water in the Australian Outback

Solar power is a gift from God and Australia is blessed with a lot of sunshine. In some very remote parts of Australia they have learnt how to harness solar power to provide water both for domestic consumption and for stock.

The Australian Government had a scheme going until recently that encouraged solar power to be installed on many outback properties and remote Aboriginal communities.

The installation of these solar powered generators provided power to some very remote areas in outback Australia but because the programme was so quickly snapped up by eligible recipients the funds delegated for the project has now been expended so the programme has been closed off early and no more applications are being accepted.

One of the more popular uses applied for in the programmes applications were for solar panels to power up the bore pumps. The Station featured on the TV programme last week was a 2000sq kilometre (yes, that’s two thousand square kilometres) and it showed how the solar panels are fitted to the bore pumps. These pumps pump the bore water from bores sunk deep into the artesian water supply deep in the ground into troughs for the stock to access. Without these pumps to pump the water to the surface, people and stock would die of dehydration.

As you can see, solar panels are life giving.

Now as you can imagine, driving around a 2000sq km property every week is both time and fuel intensive. The outcome if you didn't do it is considerably worse. Sure, there are some bigger stations out there that do it by helicopter but its still fuel intensive.

What if these outback stations were offered a means of making their own solar panels on the property, taking any necessary parts for any possible breakages in the panels on their trucks with them so they could repair any problems on site immediately? Well, the technology is now available and if there is any trade construction business out there looking for a value add to their business I can't think of one offhand that has more potential, can you?