Winter is a time of harsh weather and dark nights. In one regard, winter has its advantages for modern Dooh systems. The shorter days and darker nights mean that outdoor digital signage has an advantage over other outdoor advertising as it become more noticeable and visible – thanks to its backlighting and luminance.
The ice and snow do provide problems for these outdoor digital displays though, and failure to protect them properly from the hostilities of winter could lead to the screens failing – resulting in a high repair bill, or costly replacement.
The ice and snow are not as easy to cope with as first thought and there are occasions where outdoor digital signage screens that have been working perfectly well all year round, fail, once temperatures start to fall below zero.
Freezing temperatures a problem for electrical equipment as it can cause condensation that has built up inside the unit to freeze. The expansion of this condensation can, therefore, cause serious damage to a display screen – possibly causing permanent failure.
Coping with this drop in temperature is not that easy, either. As with all electrical devices an outdoor screen will have to have some method of transferring heat that is generated from the screen away, otherwise in normal conditions overheating can be a problem.
This latent heat can be used to help cope with the rigors of the frozen weather. One method is to thermostatically control the cooling fans. In normal conditions these are used to transfer heat away from the device but when temperatures drop the fan can be switched off along the temperature of the enclosure to rise.
To help this process insulation can be used to line the outdoor LCD enclosure enabling more heat to be trapped inside and if temperatures are still too low, thermostatic heaters can be installed.
Failing to protect from the cold weather can lead to outdoor screen failure the moment temperatures drop below the devices optimum temperature.
