Now this is really funny

[manuellynch]

Just heard a news story that LED traffic lights are causing traffic accidents!!!!

The reason - they are running too cool in areas where it snows. The lights are not melting the snow!!!

So they save energy but now the modifications that need to be made to add heaters are going to raise the power bill and raise the maintenance cost.

Now that is just funny.

[Erik Sine]

I'm hearing the same, is funny

[YYZ]

I've heard the same thing about truck tail lights. I don't think "heater" is necessarily the right phrase, but some sort of 12V element that works like the rear defogger on a car would do the trick.

It could be a clear decal that goes over the existing lamps that has a couple of lines of conductive wire to warm up the face of the lamp, and connect to the same pair of leads that go to the lamps. Future designs could/should include this as an integral part of the finished lamp, but for the next few years it's possible they figure out some sort of retrofit kit to create a little heat.

It will be the same thing when LEDs start making huge moves into residential lighting. The energy saved by the lamp will be partially offset by increased heating requirements, since existing halogen and/or incandescent light bulbs generate a lot more heat.

In the summer though, cooling costs would also be lower, so there it would balance out the costs of added heating during the winter.

[manuellynch]

I've heard the same thing about truck tail lights. I don't think "heater" is necessarily the right phrase, but some sort of 12V element that works like the rear defogger on a car would do the trick.

It could be a clear decal that goes over the existing lamps that has a couple of lines of conductive wire to warm up the face of the lamp, and connect to the same pair of leads that go to the lamps. Future designs could/should include this as an integral part of the finished lamp, but for the next few years it's possible they figure out some sort of retrofit kit to create a little heat.

It will be the same thing when LEDs start making huge moves into residential lighting. The energy saved by the lamp will be partially offset by increased heating requirements, since existing halogen and/or incandescent light bulbs generate a lot more heat.

In the summer though, cooling costs would also be lower, so there it would balance out the costs of added heating during the winter.

Most of the 12V elements you are talking about are 12VDC and not 12VAC - they will have some major corrosion issues with those. This is not a simple problem - trust me I have heard about this in so much details it is very humorous.

[manuellynch]

It will be the same thing when LEDs start making huge moves into residential lighting. The energy saved by the lamp will be partially offset by increased heating requirements, since existing halogen and/or incandescent light bulbs generate a lot more heat.

we are a supplier of LED bulbs to Pulte Homes and they came up with other ways to solve that problem - has to do with the vent sizes you use in a home - if you just decrease them slightly you can use less overall heat that is being directed much better.

As for plumbing and pool power - guy at Pulte increased diameter of piping and decreased power to run pool by 70%.

Pulte is years ahead of Energy Star and GE on solving energy issues - problem is that real estate appraisers dont see the value of these things and the cost to do them is higher than normal average homes.

[TelfordDorr]

While it is funny, it's a classic example of the Law Of Unintended Consequences. Applies to a lot of stuff these days. (Another classic example is low flow toilets. Now cities have to spend a lot of time and money sending water trucks ['Camels'] around to flush down the sewer lines. And no, they don't use 'recycled' water to do this - just fresh fire hydrant fill...)

Of course, money will fix the problem. Add intelligent heaters to the traffic signals that warm them only in near or below freezing conditions. In general, a thermistor, a comparator, and a power transistor on a heat sink ought to do the trick. Now integrate that into a single chip, and add it to the LED lamp assemblies that go in the traffic signals.