These decisions extend to the basic operations of any large facility, including its clocks. When you're selecting clocks for your school, factory, or medical facility, you have two options for a power source: electric or battery-operated.
The right choice often depends on the resources at your disposal and how you plan to deploy your clocks. Here are the pros and cons of both battery and electric clocks.
If ease of installation is your top priority, then battery-operated clocks are likely your best option. With battery power, you don't have to fuss with a tangle of wires behind a wall. Just make sure the clocks have fresh batteries and tell the correct time, and you're all set.
If you value flexibility, battery-power brings further benefits. Moving a clock from one room to another simply means taking it off the wall, without any wires to disconnect and reconnect.
This ease of installation translates to dollars saved in terms of labor, but battery clocks are also typically less expensive to purchase, enhancing the upfront financial savings.
On top of the monetary benefits and convenience, battery-powered clocks are more resilient than their wired counterparts in that they aren't affected by power outages. That way, if you have a crisis to handle, you can at least be assured everyone knows what time it is.
While battery power has a lot going for it in terms of ease-of-use, it does have its drawbacks.
The most obvious shortfall is that batteries don't last forever. The time you save from installation can be negated by your obligation to routinely change the battery — as often as once per year. That might be a maintenance regimen you prefer not to take on, especially if you chose battery power because you don't have the staffing necessary to install electric clocks in the first place.
If you select electric clocks for your facility, you may have to put in a little more effort on the front end, but you'll be more likely sit back and relax once your clocks are up and running.
In the long run, electric clocks will offer considerable time savings since you'll never have to change the batteries. Now, the time you would have spent changing batteries can be put toward a higher priority task.
Once your electric clocks are installed, you should have little to worry about. But the upfront costs are generally higher and the added time required for installation may give you second thoughts depending on your priorities.
Peeking behind a wall and handling wiring can understandably trigger anxiety, so if ease of installation is one of your top considerations, wired electric clocks may not be for you. Wall clocks require 120 volts of AC power, and if reading those specifications is already making you nervous, you might lean toward the battery-powered alternative.
Also, due to installation requirements, wired clocks are more difficult to move once you've put them in place. So, if you demand flexibility in your array of clocks, the wired option may be more trouble than it's worth.
So, whether you choose battery-operated or electric, it's important to take your specific needs into consideration. Once you've decided, choose a reliable supplier like American Time, which carries both battery-operated and electric clocks either meant to work on their own or connect to a synchronized time system. Synchronized time systems means all the work is done for you as the clocks self-adjust for drift and Daylight Saving Time.