Billboard Insider is running an interview series with John Music who has more than 50 years experience in the out of home business.  John has previously talked about getting into out of home and building signs.  Today he talks about building solar powered billboards.

What made you install solar?

My billboard dream was to make one billboard solar. It finally happened in 2018 on a new unipole site in Bolivar, Missouri.  My wife helped me with the design.  We didn’t like paying the cooperatives $35/month for electricity.

John how much did your system cost?

Dave the solar, batteries, solar regulator, 2 lights, solar wiring, box, ran about $2,300.  Extra charges for light arms and his labor set up by contractor would be additional- my contractor wanted to see if it could be done so he helped with his cost.

What’s maintenance been like?

We didn’t have to service the unipole we built in 2018 for 6 years.  Not once.  At the end of 6 years we had to replace the batteries.  We eventually built another solar site in 2022 for twin side by side 10 x 24 ft unipoles with a total of 4 -54 watt – 24 volt led lights and it worked well also.  We didn’t like paying the cooperatives $35  The solar lights worked well with the smaller 10 x 24 unipoles.

What did you learn about solar?

You do need to see where you are on the solar- sun periods on the solar mapping.   We told the advertiser we needed 5-6 hours daily sunshine to power the solar and we couldn’t control clouds.  Later we used higher rated solar panel about rated 340 watts- 24 volt system.

You can contact John at john@musicoutdoorllc.com.

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