Unintended consequences....

"A traffic sign when you're already late...." This is certainly an excellent example of the law of unintended consequences or when good ideas go bad. LEDs are popping up everywhere from Christmas trees to traffic intersections, and they certainly do their duty lighting the way....but is that all these energy minis can do? A town in the north switched their incandescent traffic lights and installed LEDs last year to save electricity (obviously). They are now realizing that the heat produced by the energy-hogging incandescents served to keep snow off the lights. The cooler {more energy efficient} LEDs cannot do this, so the snow is simply piling up on the lights obstructing the lights. City officials are considering adding heaters, weather shields and a range of other fixes......so the money saved is now combating the icing problem...go figure. What's next smart car recalls?