LED Traffic Lights Can’t Melt Snow

[GlacierFreeze]

Problem solved: LED street lights equipped with flame throwers.

Heading to the patent office.

 

[Negative Decibel]

jinx!

great minds think alike

 

[Negative Decibel]

Problem solved: LED street lights equipped with flame throwers.

Heading to the patent office.

fuck yeah!

 

[SockMan!]

One of the benefits of LED lights is that they don't burn out - you don't need guys to go out and change the bulbs. Saving energy isn't the only reason why they're desirable.

I say stick some sort of defroster in/on it and call it a day. It's a simple solution to a simple problem and will still probably use less energy than incandescent.

 

[Monkey God]

close it up and put in a little heater with a t-stat, its not damn rocket science

 

[SixtyWattMan]

Why don't they just get rid of the traffic lights?

 

[djBon2112]

I read about this issue here in Ontario a couple months ago. Some of the municipalities are doing plexi + what amounts to a rear-window defroster system to keep the lights clear.

 

[djBon2112]

it'd still draw less than a standard 69W traffic light bulb over the course of a year.

Most traffic lights actually used 100W bulbs, but the point still stands

 

[computerpro3]

Why are people talking abvout batteries on this one. The LED traffic lights are still powered by mains, aren't they? Add a temp sensor along with a simple defroster like on your cars rear window and forget about it.

Exactly. Not sure wtf is the problem here. Defroster elements like in the car rear windows barely use any power compared to three whopping incandescent bulbs. The power savings would still be tremendous.

 

[TheBuzzer]

why dont they just add a glass cover around the fin part. so snow wont get into the fin?

 

[TheBuzzer]

or even a clear plastic cover around it?

the visor really look like teh cause of the problem. so something around it to make snow not get into it. should work.

 

[krupted]

Problem solved: LED street lights equipped with flame throwers.

Heading to the patent office.

um, the first stop lights were flames

 

[krupted]

emphasis on were, not lights. i didnt even do that, what the hell

 

[beowulf7]

It's amazing in a bad way that no one thought of the fact that LED light bulbs don't generate nearly the heat that traditional light bulbs do and therefore can't melt snow (as quickly).

OTOH, towns that don't have to deal with snow should adapt LED traffic lights sooner than later.

 

[Eickst]

Great. So we spend an uber butt load of money on LED lights because they are green and use less energy, but now we have to spend more money to heat them up in cold weather.

OR

We could have saved a butt load of money and just kept using the old incandescent bulbs.





Think like a bureaucrat for a second before you make a decision.

 

[DKS]

The real solution is what happens here in the Ontario snow belt. If it's showing so heavily that the traffic lights are obscured, you shouldn't be on the roads in the first place. Stay home.

 

[Nemesis999]

Great. So we spend an uber butt load of money on LED lights because they are green and use less energy, but now we have to spend more money to heat them up in cold weather.

OR

We could have saved a butt load of money and just kept using the old incandescent bulbs.

Think like a bureaucrat for a second before you make a decision.

So we should use hundreds of extra watts per intersection 24/7 to avoid using a few dozen watts for a couple months? Not to mention the cost of having people go up there and replace incandescent bulbs all the time.

 

[krupted]

The real solution is what happens here in the Ontario snow belt. If it's showing so heavily that the traffic lights are obscured, you shouldn't be on the roads in the first place. Stay home.

no way, i dont understand! this is america we are free to do as we please!

 

[catsby]

you know I've only seen snow about 3 or 4 times in my life because I live in southern california.

LED lights would be no problem here.

 

[Silverghost]

are you familiar with this thing called a horizon as well?

 

[hughJ]

Just have a downward angled plexiglass cover. You won't get glare from the sun, and you can keep the upper visor. Or just don't have the outcrop on the bottom of the visor - there's really not a whole lot of glare coming from underneath anyways. Either way this shouldn't be a problem.

 

[krupted]

batteries are a terrible idea, they are too costly especially since they dont last long. the company that makes these LED bulb assembys for street lights will likely just add heating elements to their 'winter' models. they can be controlled by time of year, if its december through march then the little 10w elements are on....

 

[unab0mb]

In reality, me thinks people should just be better drivers.

the bigger problem rears its ugly head, a majority of people don't have common sense.

If you can't see a light, be careful. Seems like common sense to me but I am constantly amazed.

Although the standard practice is that when a traffic light is down or can't be seen, the intersection should be treated as a four way stop. Having some common sense can avoid these fatal accidents.

Uh yea. About that common sense thing and being better drivers...the drivers on one side of the intersection can't see whether the drivers on the opposite side have a light full of snow and would just drive on normally. DUH. Even if say the other 3 ways on a 4-way intersection treated it as a stop and were careful, it's still quite the scary/dangerous clusterfuck no matter if the other 1, 2, or 3 lights were visible because it still creates more of an unpredictable situation. You wouldn't know who could or could not see their light or the status of those lights. You are stuck only knowing what your light looks like (and if it's full of snow, that doesn't help you any).

 

[Righty]

Nice to know in our uber know it all high tech world we can still make dumb mistakes. Im all for LEDs but sometimes when you need a penetrating light incandescent is the way to go. This can be fixed no problem, the thing is the cost of redoing everything.

 

[Jaerb4]

engineers have a hard time thinking about real world variables. they dont spend too much time outside... and outside people dont know too much about physics.....

This is a big part of the problem, only in less judgmental terms. They often don't see their products in real world use, therefore they don't account for the practical issues that come up until the product is released and the complaints start rolling in. Society also tends to reward problem solving more than problem prevention.

 

[goodcooper]

i think the big reason to go LED was not to save power, it's to make it CHEAPER... you don't have to replace bulbs like you do conventional lighting... the power thing is just a + (and it makes it cheaper to power).....

add some sensors and a heater to it and call it a day, kthxbye....

 

[Azhar]

i think the big reason to go LED was not to save power, it's to make it CHEAPER... you don't have to replace bulbs like you do conventional lighting... the power thing is just a + (and it makes it cheaper to power).....

add some sensors and a heater to it and call it a day, kthxbye....

well it's the combination of saving power, going cheap, and lasting much much longer.

 

[scihon]

If they were going to go cheaper, they'd take the lights down and put up 4 stop signs.

 

[Azhar]

If they were going to go cheaper, they'd take the lights down and put up 4 stop signs.

that's overreaching

I don't think anyone would appreciate stop signs on highway intersections.

 

[Azhar]

but if India can do it without stop lights, we should too, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

;-)

 

[rodsfree]

but if India can do it without stop lights, we should too, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

;-)

Oh HELL NO!!!

 

[Lebowski]

I'm kind of surprised this didn't occur to anyone in advance... if it was your job to implement these sorts of things, "IT SAVES MONEY" should not be the only argument you examine.

Well when it was designed in sunny San Diego, ice was the last thing on their minds.

 

[krupted]

but if India can do it without stop lights, we should too, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

;-)

ive seen videos of india traffic where there its 10x more crowded then that, but this is far more interesting because there is so much open space, and theyre going fast because if they slow down they will get run over by the flow behind them. watch near the end how a few assholes keep an entire pack of cars and people from moving through, it bottles up and blows forward like dirty blood in clogged arteries...

 

[Azhar]

This is my favorite traffic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wO2sApvTXc

 

[beowulf7]

This is my favorite traffic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wO2sApvTXc

I've seen that vid before. Good stuff. The music makes me want to go clubbing in my office.

 

[djBon2112]

Great. So we spend an uber butt load of money

Not really. A new LED fixture is about the same as the old ones. Plus, 80% of outright replacements are needed anyways. Retrofits are much cheaper and easily ofset by energy savings.

on LED lights because they are green and use less energy,

Only one of several reasons. LEDs are brighter, last orders of magnitude longer, have fault tolerance for the whole fixture (one green LED burned out doesn't result in the loss of the whole signal), and of course use a fraction of the power.

but now we have to spend more money to heat them up in cold weather.

LEDs + defrosting elements still use less power than incandesants.

or, We could have saved a butt load of money and just kept using the old incandescent bulbs.

That statement shows a ton of ignorance.

1. A 100w bulb uses 5x the power of a 20w LED array. That's basic math, and that 80 (maybe just 70 if we use a 10w element, but that's only when it's snowing) watts is pure savings.

2. Incandesants last a few months. LEDs last years. Sur, "bulbs are cheaper than LEDs", but you do the math:

100 x 1 every 5 years




Think like a bureaucrat for a second before you make a decision.[/QUOTE]
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

 

[djBon2112]

Sorry, hit the wrong button! Here's where I left off:

------------

$100 (in LEDs) x 1 every 5 years means $100 in 5 years.
$3 x 1 every 3 months (average) x 5 years means $60 in 5 years.

Yea, it's a bit cheaper, BUT when you factor in that energy savings as well, the net savings are worth the cost.

3. Old fixtures deteriorate and need to be replaced. Same with the internal electrical workings (if not the outer casing). If they're being replaced anyways, why not upgrade to new tech? That would be like saying, after your video card died, that you should just get the same one again because "why spend money to get a better card"? That makes no sense.

 

[PyroHoltz]

So, I realized what they're doing here in and around Denver...remove the bottom of the can that the light resides in. Without the bottom, the snow doesn't accumulate....haha. That seems so obvious and the LED lights they're using work really well.

 

[UnlimitedMP]

Well when it was designed in sunny San Diego, ice was the last thing on their minds.

Hey! It can dip all the way down to the 60s by the beach!

 

[beowulf7]

I wonder if the Blizzard of 2009 in the northeast has affected any LED traffic lights there.