Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure. A high potential of several thousand volts applied to the electrodes ionizes the gas in the tube, causing it to emit colored light. The color of the light depends on the gas in the tube. Neon lights were named for neon, a noble gas which gives off a popular orange light, but other gases and chemicals are used to produce other colors, such as hydrogen (red), helium (yellow), carbon dioxide (white), and mercury (blue). Neon tubes can be fabricated in curving artistic shapes, to form letters or pictures. They are mainly used to make dramatic, multicolored glowing signage for advertising, called neon signs, which were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.
The Downside of Traditional Neon
Traditional neon is toxic to the environment, not through the properties of Neon itself, which is fairly non-lethal, but in terms of the energy it consumes. Many of the things used to make neon signs are toxic, including argon and mercury, even though the gas is not. Because of the immense expense associated with bright neon signs, the kind that fill up whole boulevards and proclaim to the world their existence, companies are beginning to turn to LED lights to help the environment and their bank accounts.
Lighting Up Art Deco Architecture
Art Deco architecture is slowly but surely making the full transition into LED lighting. Most buildings in even the Las Vegas strip are now moving to LED lighting in order to use environmental neon LED solutions. Historic avenues such as Miami, Florida’s neon district are now using LED in place of many of their neon signs in order to get that same bright glow because of the greater savings involved in using LED. Plus, many older signs need to have their gas replaced, making it a perfect time to switch over to LED lights.
Art Deco Accent Lighting Goes Green
When it comes to savings, ecological and otherwise, LED Neon lighting solutions can’t be beat. These are lights that produce much less heat, last for much longer, and require much less electricity to emit far more light than Neon would under the same circumstances. LED neon lights are win-win, and will never need to be serviced to have their gas refilled, unlike neon. Because of all of these factors we are seeing LED lights used not only outdoors but indoors as a way to bring back some of the old Art Deco styles of lighting without bringing back the expensive and outdated technology of neon light. LED lights can be made to be flexible, too, so they fulfill every function previously attributed to Neon.
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