Unintended Consequences (LED traffic lights don't generate heat to clear snow)

[Frank Lee]

Just saw on the news that in WI they have many new energy saving LED traffic lights which have become unreadable i.e. useless in cold and blowing snow from snow build-up over the light.

Seems the old incandescent lights generated enough heat to stay clear.

[cfg83]

Frank -

Sounds like proof of your "incandescents are better in winter" approach.

If they swap them back out, maybe we can get the leftovers for cheap.

CarloSW2

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Just saw on the news that in WI they have many new energy saving LED traffic lights which have become unreadable i.e. useless in cold and blowing snow from snow build-up over the light.

Seems the old incandescent lights generated enough heat to stay clear.

Everything related to government has 'unintended consequences'.

If you are a Democrat, you will see opportunity in creating stimulus job programs to provide people with jobs to go out and clean the lights.

If you are a Republican, you will see opportunity in appropriating money to develop and utilize new technology to keep the new traffic lights thawed so they can be visible.

Either way, it will end up costing us more.

That's "progress".

[SentraSE-R]

I'm sure there are many low-tech California cities that would be happy to swap out their old incandescent traffic lights for those dumb WI LED traffic lights.

[Mustang Dave]

I just noticed that in Flagstaff the other day. All the lights that face into the wind were plugged with snow. That didn't happen before Arizona switched over to LED traffic lights.

[Duffman]

We have had the LEDs for a while in Western Canada and I have never noticed a problem but I am sure it is dryer here.

[Weather Spotter]

If you are a redneck (or far right wing) you will think up a solution the fixes the issue and still saves money:

Just need to add a clear cover or redesign the housing to remove the area for the snow to stick.

[Swiftbow]

Originally Posted by Mustang Dave

I just noticed that in Flagstaff the other day. All the lights that face into the wind were plugged with snow. That didn't happen before Arizona switched over to LED traffic lights.

Funny, my wife and I were just noticing the same thing in SantaFe. This wasn't a problem with the old style lights.

Doug

[Johnny Mullet]

Traffic light wiper?

[Big Dave]

Any new technology needs time to work out the details. That's why precipitate government mandates are generally a bad idea.