Fire Safety Signs - Information about emergency fire exit and fire extinguisher signs, along with other fire safety signs. Includes links to retailers of emergency fire safety signs.

The idea of replacing conventional fire safety signs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent ones has been widely promoted over the past ten years. Instead of two 20- or 25-watt incandescent light bulbs that last a few months to a year, compact fluorescent fire exit signs require only about 12 watts and generally last about two years in continuous use. A good deal, right?

Wrong. You can now leap-frog fluorescent fire exit-sign lighting with far more energy-efficient and much longer-lasting LED exit signs. Conversion of the 100 to 150 million exit signs in the United States would save over 30 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year--the output of five large nuclear plants.

LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are those little red lights on your stereo or computer peripherals. They are gallium arsenide semiconductors that light up when a small current of electricity flows through them and causes electrons to jump back-and-forth between different valence levels. LEDs consume just a tiny amount of electricity for the level of light they emit, and they last almost forever (from 80 to over 500 years). The red color of gallium arsenide LEDs is particularly appropriate for fire safety signs because of its good visibility in smoke.

LED fire exit signs have been on the market since 1985. First-generation LED fire exit signs used the LEDs to spell EXIT (direct view). These exit signs were very expensive--as much as $200--which kept market penetration extremely low.

Significant technology developments during the past two years, however, have improved the practicality of LED exit signs and brought down the cost to as low as the $30 mark. Second-generation LEDs have been developed that are up to 30 times as bright as earlier ones.