Daktronics

Can I turn my electronic equipment off and on each day to save on power consumption

Potential Symptoms

  • Can I turn my electronic equipment (scoreboards, Galaxy displays, etc.) off and on each day to save on power consumption in order to lower energy costs?
  • What are the best practices for when to power down my scoreboard or message center?
  • Should I shut my display off during the evenings?
  • Can I place the display on an Electrical Timer?

Environment

  • Product Family: Sports Product, Message Displays, Digit and Price Display
  • Product: LED Scoreboard, FL-2000, FL-3000, FL-4000, FL-4500, DF-2000, DF-4000, Galaxy, GalaxyPro, GalaxyPro Revolution, GS6
  • Component:
  • Control System:

Resolution

There is no exact answer for these type of questions, but some general recommendations can be made.  If a scoreboard or message center is not going to be used for a prolonged period of time, then it is definitely advisable to disconnect power. When any electronic device is powered on, there is a slight power usage surge due to the capacitance of electrical devices and even copper wire.  Repetitive cycling of power can reduce the longevity of any electronic device (i.e. it may cost more to replace failed equipment compared to savings amounted from turning off the equipment under most circumstances; if the scoreboard or message center is incandescent based however, then the energy savings may be more considerable compared to newer Daktronics equipment which is all LED based).
Steps that can be taken to reduce energy consumption cost :

Scoreboards

  1. Scoreboards should not be powered on and off more that once a day.  That is, if the scoreboard is powered on in the morning, it should be left on if it is going to be used that evening unless there are threats of power surges during the day (i.e from thunderstorms or electrical issues in the area)
  2. Best practice is to power off scoreboards when not in use without violating step 1.  This should most certainly be done when the board will not be used for a pro-longed period of time (e.g. end of game season). Even if the scoreboard will be used again in a couple days, it is still best practice to power down the scoreboard.  This may reduce the life of the board slightly, but the benefit of reducing lightning/surge risk outweighs the disadvantages in this case.  This is especially true for outdoor scoreboards where the risk of lightning strikes is much higher.

Message Displays

  1. Since message centers are used quite often (usually daily), power should just be left on for normal usage. 
  2. To reduce energy consumption, schedule the display to blank during hours of non-usage in the Venus 1500 software.
  3. It also possible to lower the maximum brightness that a message center is permitted to use (this is configured using a utility like M2Config, but should be performed by a technician).  Alternatively, a similar thing can be achieved by scheduling the brightness setting in Venus (must be enabled in v4).
  4. If you have a full color display, consider avoiding pastels and whites in messages since these colors require the use of all 3 LEDs for color (red, green, and blue) and thus require slightly more energy.

Gas Price Displays

  1. Gas Price displays are very low amperage draw displays.  It is recommended to leave these displays on if possible throughout the day, as power cycling repeatedly can cause the displays to lose data.

Powering Down Equipment Due to Risk of Damage

Power can be turned off during the following scenarios and others similar to them (not meant to be a comprehensive list):

  1. Threat of a thunderstorm or any considerable power surge threat (especially for outdoor equipment)
  2. When the device in question (scoreboard, message center, etc.) will not be used for a prolonged period of time
  3. It may be advisable to power down the equipment if an electrical company/provider will be doing service in the area
  4. If there have been frequent power outages in the area due to energy demands exceeding what a local power plant can supply (may occur during the hottest parts of summer when AC usage is high; restore power only after frequent power outages are no longer present)
  5. During construction near the equipment, especially if the workers are using high current draw equipment such as welders, circular saws, or large compressors (this list is also not meant to be comprehensive)

KB ID: DD2161600

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