By Peter Saunders
There are many business opportunities in Canada’s sign industry today to retrofit older electric signs with new light-emitting diode (LED) illumination systems. While these systems may be much easier to install than their fluorescent and neon predecessors, it is important to keep in mind a revamped sign in the field will need to be professionally inspected again and recertified for future use.
“Sign companies have been pulling out the old T12 fluorescent lamps and ballasts from provincially certified electric signs,” says Jonathan Calderwood, general manager (GM) of Grant Illuminated Signs in Campbell River, B.C. “The new components have to meet certification standards, which is why a new inspection process needs to happen with each retrofit. You can’t just take out the old components and put in new ones yourself without recertification, even if those new components are listed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and stamped by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).”
“We are constantly monitoring new technologies as they appear on the market and at installation sites,” says Brad Sullivan, an electrical safety officer for the British Columbia Safety Authority (BCSA) who specializes in requirements for the certification of signs. “We are watching to ensure the work being performed in the field is by licensed contractors under permit, with qualified people doing the work, using equipment that bears evidence of approval.”
This work must be inspected by a field safety representative of the local authority, to confirm all components are approved and to ensure the whole modified sign meets the applicable codes and standards.
“When you modify an approved sign, the original certification mark becomes null and void or no longer valid,” says Sullivan. “This is when the sign requires recertification.”
The in-house alternative
That said, some sign shops have been inspected and approved by CSA, allowing them to manufacture and label signs in-house that meet the relevant standards without being individually inspected each time. Calderwood points out this arrangement can be applied to LED retrofits in an indirect manner.
“A CSA-approved shop can manufacture a new sign box—including the LEDs, wiring, junction box, ground connection, driver and switch—as a finished assembly in-house that can then be installed in the field, so long as it is not altered or modified any further once it is in the field,” he says. “You can pull the T12s and ballasts out of a sign and put in the whole new CSA-certified assembly, bolt it into place in the old cabinet and then you don’t need to have it certified again, since the assembly is an approved sign as per CSA’s specifications. The old housing is no longer considered the sign cabinet, so all you’re doing is using a CSA-approved connection between two panels. There are several companies doing this now and it works very well. The assembly must be pre-certified in the shop, not in the field.”
This can save significant time and money if the sign shop no longer needs to pay a field inspector to test and recertify the sign after it has been installed.
LED retrofits have become mainstream in the sign industry.
“The certification and inspection bodies are always working on programs that will minimize the financial impact of recertification,” says Sullivan. “Our regulatory obligation is to recognize a valid mark on the product, as per requirements supported by the Canadian Electrical Code.”
“You still need to display the standard manufacturing decal on the face of the sign panel,” Calderwood agrees, “and you also have to remove all of the old external decals, because the cabinet is no longer considered a sign.”
