Traffic LED Lights Make Cities Run Greener
November 9, 2009 
8 Comments
As I was sat at yet another red light on my way home last night I noticed that the annoying red light was alot brighter than usual, and it seemed to be made of lots of tiny lights instead of the usual single bulb… I remembered seeing some stories about new traffic lights which use light emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of power hungry incandescent bulbs and the one I saw looked liked a group of LEDs.
Once I realized that the red light stopping me from getting home was in fact a new super efficient traffic LED light system I suddenly didn’t mind staring at a red light!
I Love Traffic LED Lights - Red but Green!
This new breed traffic lights is made from groups of LEDs which are literally electric diodes that produce light! They are extremely energy efficient and have a very long life. LEDs are very small (smaller than your little finger tip) so in order to get the required brightness for a street light there have to be lots of them grouped closely together. The old incandescent traffic lights were typically 50 – 150 Watts which means they consumed alot of electricity! There are numerous advantages to using LED traffic lights including;
- LEDs are brighter and can be seen in bright sunlight as well as foggy conditions and through heavy rain.
- LEDs don’t have to be replaced as often as the old incandescent or halogen style bulbs.
- LEDs use far less energy saving big cities lots of electricity and money!
How to Spot an LED Traffic Light
So how much electricity does a new LED traffic light system save?
In a traffic light group (normally three lights) one of them is always on, 24 hours a day, 7 days week! The old 100 watt incandescent bulbs used 2.4 kilowatt-hours per day. Lets assume power costs 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, this means that one traffic signal costs about 24 cents a day to operate, or about $87 per year. There are perhaps eight signals per intersection, so that’s almost $700 per year to supply traffic lights to a single intersection!
LED bulbs might consume 15 or 20 watts instead of 100 so a big city can easily save a million dollars a year by replacing all of the bulbs with LED units.
So next time you are driving home and get caught at a red light, take a look and see whether it is made of lots of tiny red (but green) LED lights and give your city a virtual pat on the back for saving money and more importantly, energy!
If you want to learn more about LED traffic lights check out this “enlightening” video!
I really like your blog and perspective on LED Grow Lights. Hopefully, more people will catch on.
Thanks for the comment, as LED lights become more affordable I think we will see expanded use in everyday households
LED traffic lights are not that expensive. One thing that I find interesting is that the price increases the further you move down the light spectrum. For instance, red is least expensive, then yellow and finally green. White lights with a colored glass or plastic lens would be most expensive because white is the most expensive diode to produce.
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LED lighting, solid state lighting, uses up to 1/10Th the electricity of conventional forms of illumination and will last up to 50 times longer. LED lighting is safe, produces little or no heat, and is instant on at full brightness.No mercury, ultra-violet light, or hazardous materials being brought into your home and ultimately impacting our environment in landfills.
Hello, really nice stuff you have here. Together we can save the planet!
LED lighting, solid state lighting, uses up to 1/10Th the electricity of conventional forms of illumination and will last up to 50 times longer. LED lighting is safe, produces little or no heat, and is instant on at full brightness.No mercury, ultra-violet light, or hazardous materials being brought into your home and ultimately impacting our environment in landfills. My friend once by From OKLEDLIGHTS.COM,they are good products and service ,may be you can look some there .
LED’s are lights of the future…they are a more efficient and economic solution to all the lighting problems…