LED traffic lights in Budapest
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Sun, 2006-10-29 12:49
Together with a Hungarian transportation system specialist, Siemens is equipping all the traffic lights of Budapest with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These semiconductor light sources consume up to 90 percent less power, and they are brighter than the conventional lamps in traffic lights. Despite a high initial investment, the city treasurer incurs no additional charges: A financing model from Siemens distributes the costs over monthly installments that are smaller than the savings from the lower power consumption and maintenance costs.
Copyright: Siemens
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LED traffic lights in Budapest
By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Fri, 2007-10-26 11:18 Also in Germany I observe a trend to use LEDs in traffic lights, although obviously only in new installations and in the course of routine replacements. They are really the optimal choice because in this application you need a slightly, but not sharply focussed light beam of a specific colour, which LEDs provide by default. Producing a diffuse white light with LEDs takes additional effort, vice versa as with incandescent lamps.“Up to” 90% is always a lousy comparison to make but do you want to know why it appears credible here, although LEDs are not (yet) so terribly efficient, only just half way between incandescent and fluorescent lighting? I can tell you from an old experience during my days with a small transformer manufacturer: There we once received a request for a sample and a bid for a traffic light transformer. This way I learned that traffic lights are equipped with 12V bulbs but which are fed with only 10V, leading to a great loss of efficiency but in favour of a lower failure rate, since incandescent light bulbs don’t like frequent switching (while LEDs don’t care).
I may add that we did not get the commission. I spoilt it because once again I offered best technology with grain-oriented laminations, which would have meant a ≈20kWh annual loss saving but ≈2€ more in purchase price (per transformer). Time was not mature in those days (1986) to sell such a hidden <1 year payback time.
Nowadays, unter the fright of labour cost, even without any energy savings municipalities might go to LED traffic lights because of their extremely long lifetime expectancy, thus reducing maintenance costs substantially. But everything that saves energy is a good thing, never mind if the energy saving comes as the prime objective or as an aside or spin-off!
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