Traffic lights are crucial to any society that has major automobile traffic systems. These lights work 24 hours a day directing traffic. Since these lights are on 24 hours a day it is essential that they are energy efficient in their operation. This has been achieved with the use of LED lights in traffic lights.
led traffic lights consume 90% less energy than an average traffic light. A 100 watt traffic light can consume as much as 2.4 kilowatt hours per day. This means that the cost of operating one traffic light alone can cost as much as a year. An LED bulb on the other hand, consumes only 15 to 20 watts of power leading to considerable amount of savings. These systems have been experimented across the world
The semiconductor technology around which LED lights is built eliminates the need of a filament, which is why durability of these lights is longer. The long life span reduces the operating cost of using them. Their long life span and low maintenance costs of these bulbs municipal departments can spend less on labor and maintenance costs to keep the traffic light system operational
An
LED traffic light
is made up of a number of light emitting diodes. These are purely electronic forms of light. Each light is no larger than a pencil eraser and it requires hundreds of lights connected in an array to be able to provide sufficient lighting that is required for the traffic light. These lights are considerably brighter than an incandescent bulb. In fact this is precisely the reason that a modern LED traffic light does not use reflectors. These traffic lights can absorb sunlight falling on the lenses of the LED diodes.LED pedestrian bulbs
have an operating voltage of AC 110V or AC 220V. Though LED traffic lights have a higher initial investment cost the savings incurred makes it an ideal investment for any city. Small cities in Arkansas have invested in LED traffic lights. Studies on the efficiency of these new lights reveal that LED lights helps to reduce 41 million pounds of carbon dioxide. The air pollution savings incurred was equivalent to having 3600 cars removed per year.