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Energy Saving
The use of energy is a worldwide concern, both in terms of its cost and on its effect on the environment. Lighting represents almost 25% of energy consumption in commercial buildings, so lighting control can make a big contribution to energy saving.
The use of lighting control can help further extend the lamp life of the bulb by using “soft start” electronics. Soft start eliminates the initial switch – on current surge (filament shock) that exists when a cold lamp filament conducts approximately ten times it’s steady state current until reaching it’s full colour temperature after about 150 milli – seconds. All iLight dimmers incorporate “soft start” electronics and testing reported that for one type of halogen lamp with a rated life of 2000 hours dimmed to 25% has a life extension of about four times that of a non – dimmed lamp.
The following chart briefly documents the trade off between dimmed levels versus energy savings and lamp life.
| Percentage Dimmed |
Energy Savings |
Lamp Life Increase |
| 10% |
10% |
2 x |
| 25% |
20% |
4 x |
| 50% |
40% |
20 x |
| 75% |
60% |
>20 x |
Lighting Management systems can result in further energy saving for commercial buildings.
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy Emerging Technologies Report Integrated Daylighting Systems reports theoretical savings of 52% for installing a control system. They further report that similar studies point to energy savings as follows:
Scheduling and light level tuning 10 – 25% savings:
- Fewer fixtures or workstation control 0 – 35% savings
- Daylight harvesting 12 – 17% savings (35% in daylit spaces)
- Occupancy control 15 – 35% savings
- Variable load shedding 15 – 20 % savings (peak only)
The basis of lighting management systems for energy management can be summed up as:
- Having systems that which encourage users to set lighting to meet their requirements and not to be wasteful
- Incorporating light sensors into a system which can measure the achieved lighting level. The measurement is then used to adjust the level to a pre planned value.
- Incorporating presence sensors into the system which can detect the presence of human beings, thus ensuring that light is switched off in areas where nobody is present
- Using timeclocks or programmable controllers to switch off lighting when it is known that it not going to be required.
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