LED traffic lights don’t melt snow, do cause accidents — Engadget — It’s always something.
A number of cold weather American states are reporting their dismay at finding out that LED traffic lights are so energy efficient that they do not produce enough excess heat to dissipate any snow that covers them. It turns out, perhaps in an homage to bad engineering everywhere, that the inefficiency of incandescent light bulbs was previously relied upon to keep traffic signals unimpeded. The new LEDs do not achieve the same effect, which has resulted in a few accidents and even a death being blamed on obstructed traffic lights.
found by Keith Ray
#20 I appreciate that! Being always right and funny is indeed a gift.
Diesel, you seem like a smart guy. You should join the good side, the liberal side. Those frown wrinkles would soon disappear and those extra pounds will be gone in no time!
Happy Holidays
I live in a major snow belt, and snow doesn’t stick to traffic lights as shown in that photo very often.
FWIW I don’t believe the premise…each LED dissipates about 1W. Given there are what…50+ in each lamp, they will melt the snow eventually, just not as fast.
#22 agreed. But Dvorak and the conservative sheeple are merely grasping at straws to undermine the inevitable green movement. You will lose this battle. Give it up. Resistance is futile.
You lost the “Dig Dig Dig for oil” dumb ass strategy.
You are losing your “Let’s keep shitting in our shared air bubble” strategy.
You will lose the “Basic healthcare to highest bidder” strategy.
Next battle you will lose : “Human relationships are the government’s business”
Stop lights kill people people don’t kill people.Oh wait thats guns.
Seems to me that shape of the light could be changed slightly so that snow won’t collect in them.
Oops… never mind… that sign next to the light is flat and plastered with snow.
Four words. Self-regulating heat tape. Stick the control box in the control cabinet, set it to come on below 40 or set to remotely operate in this circumstance, and voila, snow melts.
A bedroom gets toasty warm in the winter because the girl watches Family Guy on a CRT TV. If she replaces it with a cool energy efficient hybrid LCD, then she has to turn on her electric space heater to be warm. As she drives home with her new TV, the LED lights in the traffic “control” device are mostly burned out and there’s snow blocking the ones that are still lit.
How much energy is she saving by driving home?
Just remove the bulb shrouds. The only reason they are there in the first place was because the incandescent lights were too dim in daylight. Nobody will argue that LED lights are VERY BRIGHT, thus no bulb shrouds are necessary and no snow and ice buildup will occur.