Seeing Green in Red

Ray Deese likes nothing better than the sight of a bright red stoplight. He owes his living to the most hated hue of the traffic signal triumvirate, and recently, his work to improve the efficiency of stoplights won him an award from the Smithsonian Institution.

Deese is the founder and owner of Electro-Tech’s Inc., an Anaheim company that makes red traffic lights more energy efficient. Using light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, which manipulate electrons to produce photons of light, instead of traditional 150-watt bulbs, Deese says cities can save $70 per year in energy costs for every traffic signal.

At $200 apiece, the products cost a lot more than a $3.50 bulb, but they can last up to 30 years, instead of just 12 months.

Electro-Tech’s has already installed 20,000 units at traffic signals across the country, including every signal in Corona.

Recently, the company was one of dozens of high-tech California companies recognized by the Smithsonian in its annual Computerworld Awards. As a result, Electro-Tech’s has earned a place on a Smithsonian Internet site that exhibits the products of the award winners.

“It’s nice, kind of a reward for my hard effort,” said Reese, 54, who founded the company in 1981. “You’ve got to believe in something, and I believe in LEDs.”

His company recently won a contract to install the lights on state-maintained roads in Oregon. The company only makes red lights because green LEDs cost more to manufacture, and yellow lights are on for such short durations that the cost savings aren’t as dramatic.

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Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com.