Energy costs are rising exponentially, and things are unlikely to improve in the short term. With businesses across the country feeling the pinch, we’re all looking for ways to cut back on our energy bills. In some European countries, they even implemented laws to turn off the power at certain times to conserve electricity. For those businesses that rely on digital signage, that’s a big worry.
However, if you’re smart about it, it’s possible to continue using your digital signage without spending any more on your energy bills. Indeed, with the right mindset you might even be able to spend less.
Turn it off when not in use
The most obvious way to conserve energy is to switch your signage off when it’s not being used. This can be done manually but it can also be set to a timer. The easiest way to achieve this is directly using the inbuilt functionality of our screens; all of our screens are built with integrated power timers, allowing them to be set to turn on and off when traffic flow is set to be at its busiest and weakest.
Ambient sensors
A more aggressive form of energy saving could be installing an ambient light sensor so that the display only turns on (at maximum brightness, at least) when it senses somebody passing by. You should be able to set this sensor to either turn off completely or reduce its brightness level when it’s not immediately visible to anyone. Even reducing the brightness from 100% to 50% could save you a small fortune in energy bills over the course of a month or year.
Temperature controls
If a screen is getting too hot, either by using too much energy or by baking in the sun for hours on end, it can end up overheating and failing. Thankfully, many of our digital display solutions are built with an internal airflow system that allows air to begin circulating when it senses the screen is getting a little too warm.
Update your display
The faster technology innovates, the more efficient screens are becoming with LED and LCD technology available today far more energy efficient than similar screens released even a few years ago. A single display using just 10W less power could cost you around £30 less to run every year. So, if you haven’t updated your solution in a while, 2023 could be the year to do so.
Content management
Content that is of lower contrast and based on darker colour palettes is often going to use less energy than bright and colourful content. We’re not saying you need to stick solely to dark content, but perhaps consider varying your content between darker and lighter hues.
Manage brightness
Finally, most digital signage manufacturers don’t give a single figure for power consumption, just a minimum and a maximum level. What determines whether a display is operating at the lower or the higher end of its power range is the brightness level. Reducing the brightness level of a display even slightly and just at certain times of day can reduce energy consumption by as much as 20%.
Image: Zapp2Photo / Shutterstock.com
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