LED Lights and Garage Door Opener???

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:17:35 +0100, Martin Brown
<|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:


>> Municipalities in northern climates that converted to LED traffic
>> lights are having to send work crews out to de-ice them. The LED's
>> don't radiate enough heat to de-ice themselves.
>
>This seems unlikely. LED traffic lights are efficient but to that extent 
>there is still enough waste heat at least in the UK up to latitude 55N. 
>It must take exceptional conditions for snow to accumulate on them.
>
>In the US there is already a fairly simple piece of bent metal solution 
>for wind blown snow clogging up the sun visor cowling.
>
>http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/7/1/4
>
>Regards,
>Martin Brown

I seen it on a US news station a few months ago. They showed crews out
hacking the encrusted ice off the lights during a blizzard (wet snow).
As to the frequency that this occurs and under what specific weather
conditions I don't know but it defiantly does happen and has. 

I seen this a few months ago  but I seem to recall it had happened
enough that the city/town the story was in was considering changing
back.

But who knows media likes to over dramatize.

Just one thought: why did not they design traffic lights with RGB LEDs ?
They should be much cheaper with a single lamp.
However we are all so used to 3 lamp traffic lights...

On 4/15/2010 7:56 AM, Hammy wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:17:35 +0100, Martin Brown
> <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk>  wrote:
>
>
>>> Municipalities in northern climates that converted to LED traffic
>>> lights are having to send work crews out to de-ice them. The LED's
>>> don't radiate enough heat to de-ice themselves.
>>
>> This seems unlikely. LED traffic lights are efficient but to that extent
>> there is still enough waste heat at least in the UK up to latitude 55N.
>> It must take exceptional conditions for snow to accumulate on them.
>>
>> In the US there is already a fairly simple piece of bent metal solution
>> for wind blown snow clogging up the sun visor cowling.
>>
>> http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/7/1/4
>>
>> Regards,
>> Martin Brown
>
> I seen it on a US news station a few months ago. They showed crews out
> hacking the encrusted ice off the lights during a blizzard (wet snow).
> As to the frequency that this occurs and under what specific weather
> conditions I don't know but it defiantly does happen and has.
>
> I seen this a few months ago  but I seem to recall it had happened
> enough that the city/town the story was in was considering changing
> back.
>
> But who knows media likes to over dramatize.
>

Yup.  At the end of Feb we had a nor'easter here, with 2 feet of very 
wet snow and 50-mph winds.  It broke a great many trees from the snow 
load, and left the branches and the wires looking like cat tails--coated 
with a cylindrical blanket of snow, about the same thickness all round. 
    I'd have noticed the traffic lights except that all the power was 
out. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

-- 
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal
ElectroOptical Innovations
55 Orchard Rd
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

In article <4BC71827.1020002@electrooptical.net>, Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
>On 4/15/2010 7:56 AM, Hammy wrote:
>> On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:17:35 +0100, Martin Brown
>> <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>>> Municipalities in northern climates that converted to LED traffic
>>>> lights are having to send work crews out to de-ice them. The LED's
>>>> don't radiate enough heat to de-ice themselves.
>>>
>>> This seems unlikely. LED traffic lights are efficient but to that extent
>>> there is still enough waste heat at least in the UK up to latitude 55N.
>>> It must take exceptional conditions for snow to accumulate on them.
>>>
>>> In the US there is already a fairly simple piece of bent metal solution
>>> for wind blown snow clogging up the sun visor cowling.
>>>
>>> http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/7/1/4
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Martin Brown
>>
>> I seen it on a US news station a few months ago. They showed crews out
>> hacking the encrusted ice off the lights during a blizzard (wet snow).
>> As to the frequency that this occurs and under what specific weather
>> conditions I don't know but it defiantly does happen and has.
>>
>> I seen this a few months ago  but I seem to recall it had happened
>> enough that the city/town the story was in was considering changing
>> back.
>>
>> But who knows media likes to over dramatize.
>>
>
>Yup.  At the end of Feb we had a nor'easter here, with 2 feet of very 
>wet snow and 50-mph winds.  It broke a great many trees from the snow 
>load, and left the branches and the wires looking like cat tails--coated 
>with a cylindrical blanket of snow, about the same thickness all round. 
>    I'd have noticed the traffic lights except that all the power was 
>out. ;

We lost power for 3 days. My in house emergency led lighting is very nice.
i'm still working with it. I aquired a new portable TV also.
My led lights stay on all the time is select locations, but they also add
to the house lighting effects, like under cabinets, etc.

greg

Wow did this thread take an interesting direction.  I will say that it has
provided some very interesting reading.  Not only about my problem but
CFL's and LED's and potential banning of Incandescents.

After reading some of the responses to my problem, I suspected one LED bulb
in particular.  I have it lighting the interior of my garage but tied to
the same low voltage landscape system.  This one in particular was a 10
Watt LED bulb (not 10 watt equivilant, but an actual 10 watt bulb).  It is
extremely bright which is what I wanted, but suspect there is no filtering.
 I did recall something quirky when I first plugged it in, but I blew it
off at the time.

Fortunately, it was the easiest one to disconnect and test the RF issues
with the remote.  So far, the Opener Remotes are working normal, but we are
monitoring them to see if this really is the problem.

Great conversation... glad I inspired "fodder for thought".
Later,
Jerome	   
					
---------------------------------------		
Posted through http://www.Electronics-Related.com

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:12:23 +0200, "PovTruffe"
<PovTache@gaga.invalid> wrote:

>Just one thought: why did not they design traffic lights with RGB LEDs ?
>They should be much cheaper with a single lamp.
>However we are all so used to 3 lamp traffic lights...
>

For people that can't distinguish colors it's certainly better.. since
they seem to be standardized in most places in North America with red
at the top and green at the bottom. 

Of course some of the outlying settlements, such as Britain and
Quebec, have their own quaint customs: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Modern_British_LED_Traffic_Light.jpg
http://photos-e.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v323/26/109/517132740/n517132740_1211892_8628.jpg

I'm old enough to remember driving in NYC with the two-color lights
(red and green on simultaneously rather than amber), which always
struck me as being more efficient. 

Martin Brown wrote:
> 
> Hammy wrote:
> > On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:28:47 +0000 (UTC), don@manx.misty.com (Don
> > Klipstein) wrote:
> >
> >>  My experience with LED traffic signals in Philadelphia and suburbs
> >> thereof is that the LED ones are showing their superiority.
> >>
> >>  Please keep in mind that Philadelphia gets more extreme high temperatures
> >> than much of Florida.  I have already lived through merely a July 1995 day
> >> in Philadelphia fair-chance getting hotter than Miami was ever officially
> >> noted to have achieved, some chance tying Miami's record high temperature
> >> in combination with dew point that is high even for Miami!
> >>
> >>  (PHL airport or closest-to-there official weather station determined
> >> that at 4 PM "local time" July 15th the temperature was 102 F [peaking
> >> that day at a slightly different time at 103 F.])
> >>
> >>  (I have a tale or 2 to tell about atmosphere temperature at 102 F, and
> >> some cause to discount much-hotter)...
> >>
> >> - Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)
> >
> > Municipalities in northern climates that converted to LED traffic
> > lights are having to send work crews out to de-ice them. The LED's
> > don't radiate enough heat to de-ice themselves.
> 
> This seems unlikely. LED traffic lights are efficient but to that extent
> there is still enough waste heat at least in the UK up to latitude 55N.
> It must take exceptional conditions for snow to accumulate on them.


   they had snow on them in Ocala this winter.


-- 
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'

PovTruffe wrote:
> 
> Just one thought: why did not they design traffic lights with RGB LEDs ?
> They should be much cheaper with a single lamp.
> However we are all so used to 3 lamp traffic lights...


  They didn't.  The LED lamps are retrofitted.  They did the red first,
in my area.


-- 
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'

Don Klipstein wrote:
> 
> In article <4BC630D4.4812E944@earthlink.net>, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
> >
> >John Larkin wrote:
> >>
> >> Next we'll have expensive LED bulbs that "last up to 100,000 hours"
> >> with crappy electronics. Nearly all the green LED traffic lights in
> >> San Francisco have failed, in interesting patterns, and had to be
> >> replaced. Only the greens, for some reason.
> >
> >   I see a lot of failing red ones around here, along with the green.
> >Some have already been replaced once, when over half of the LEDs went
> >dark. It's interesting to look at them through the tinted  top edge of
> >the windshield. They sure don't match them. Their intensities vary all
> >over the place.
> 
>   My experience with LED traffic signals in Philadelphia and suburbs
> thereof is that the LED ones are showing their superiority.
> 
>   Please keep in mind that Philadelphia gets more extreme high temperatures
> than much of Florida.  I have already lived through merely a July 1995 day
> in Philadelphia fair-chance getting hotter than Miami was ever officially
> noted to have achieved, some chance tying Miami's record high temperature
> in combination with dew point that is high even for Miami!


   The occasional extreme high is one thing, but the year round average
is higher in Florida.  Unless you're claiming that the laws of physics
don't apply in your hell hole.


> 
>   (PHL airport or closest-to-there official weather station determined
> that at 4 PM "local time" July 15th the temperature was 102 F [peaking
> that day at a slightly different time at 103 F.])
> 
>   (I have a tale or 2 to tell about atmosphere temperature at 102 F, and
> some cause to discount much-hotter)...
> 
>  - Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)


-- 
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'

"Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote in message 
news:4BC750B9.C003B50D@earthlink.net...
>  They didn't.  The LED lamps are retrofitted.  They did the red first,
> in my area.

Hmm... I wonder why red?  Spends the most time on?  If one color is going to 
fail, presumably people will just stop anyway, so why not make it the red one 
that'll fail anyway?