Atop the roof on Proctor and Gamble's South Boston manufacturing plant, a landmark neon sign has for decades proclaimed Gillette World Shaving Headquarters. Integrated Electric and Signs by Tomorrow Norton have just completed an LED-based restoration of the sign as part of a renovation at the plant.
The sign stands 16-ft tall and stretches 400-ft long. Before the restoration work, the sign contained 5000 ft of neon tubing and cost more than $32,000 per year to operate. Now lit by more than 14,000 LED modules, the sign will use only $5,000 worth of electricity per year.
Integrated Electric and Signs by Tomorrow Norton won the project by providing Proctor and Gamble a comprehensive estimate of construction costs, energy consumption, and payback time attributable to low-power LEDs. Integrated Electric worked with NStar, a Massachusetts-based gas and electric utility, to secure a $56,000 grant for the project. The grant made the payback less than three years for Proctor and Gamble.
Signs for Tomorrow Norton provided both the expertise in working with LEDs, and handled replacement of the Lexan faces of the sign. Integrated Electric, an electrical contracting company, handled installation and power distribution. The restoration took about a month beginning in December with completion in early January.
