Low-Voltage Sign Lighting for a Vancouver, WA Apartment Community

This sign in central Vancouver sits at the entrance to Bridge Creek Apartments and Totem Pole Estates on a busy road. After dark you couldn’t read it. We put in new low-voltage lighting so it’s lit when people are driving home.

Why low voltage for a sign

Regular line voltage would light the sign too. We went low voltage because the sign sits in a planted bed by the road:

• It’s safer around landscapers, who run string trimmers past it every week
• The wire doesn’t have to be buried as deep, so we didn’t have to trench the bed like a service run
• It’s easy to add on if the property wants path or bed lights at the same entrance later
• The transformer is in one spot, mounted on the post where anyone can find it

The transformer and controls are in a weatherproof box low on the wood post. You don’t see it from the road, and a maintenance tech has everything in one place.

Aiming the lights

The fixtures sit on arms above the sign and point down across the face. Getting that angle right is most of the job.

If the angle’s off, you get a bright spot at the top of the sign and a dark bottom, or the light spills past the sign into the road. With the arms set out the right distance, each fixture lights its part of the sign evenly and the light stays on the sign.

Signs for property managers

The entrance sign is the first thing a new tenant sees when they pull in. It’s a small line item on an apartment property, and everybody who drives by sees it.

We do sign lighting along with the rest of our commercial lighting and power installation. If you’re weighing a bigger lighting upgrade on the property, our breakdown of the payback on a commercial LED retrofit shows how the numbers work.

Managing a property in Vancouver with a sign, a parking lot or a common area that’s dark at night? Call 360-828-7143 or get the sign lit and we’ll quote it.