The GR 2400 from Lighting Control & Design by Acuity Brands is a lighting-
control system that utilizes a low-voltage CAT-5 cable for wiring that is simpler to install in most spaces.
the products on the market didn’t always perform as expected. They often had varying degrees of color tempera- ture, less than advertised life and were expensive. The good news is those days are behind us; manufacturers are creating new and better LED products in force.
Smith says there hasn’t been a proj- ect he has worked on in the last three years that didn’t have at least some component of LED lighting. In fact, his firm recently designed its first all-LED-lit office floor, a 30,000-square-foot space in a Portland building.
For retrofits in more difficult spaces, Hubbell Lighting developed the wi- Hubb, which utilizes wireless technology to communicate with
controls rather than through traditional hard wiring.
All the major lighting manufactur- ers have increased their LED product offerings for new fixtures and retrofit applications. Smith estimates there are currently more new fixtures being designed than retrofits for older fixtures. However, designers still have to be care- ful with fixture selection. “LED lighting was originally used in down-lighting applications, where it functions beauti- fully,” Smith asserts. “Now we’re start- ing to see it in applications, like direct/ indirect fixtures where you have to have two separate rows of LEDs, one shines up and one shines down to create the effect. Sometimes it’s not the most ef- ficient use of the technology. There are still applications where a high-efficiency T5 or T8 fluorescent lamp still makes a better choice.”
Smith says the No. 1 request he
Wattstopper’s fixture-integrated dimming photosensor provides a
continuous dimming signal to a 0-10 VDC dimming bal- last, based on daylight levels.
receives from clients is to use LED light- ing wherever possible when it makes financial sense. He notes clients don’t always understand the proper applica- tion and limitations of the technology. “The marketing people have done a good job of getting the word out about LED lighting to building owners,” Smith says. “I often educate clients about where we should be implementing LEDs and where it might make sense to use something else.”
Despite the fact that LEDs aren’t a perfect fit for every application, Smith makes a conscious effort to reduce the number of different types of lamps required in a building. “From an opera- tions and maintenance standpoint, it just makes sense,” he says. “When
you have too varied a combination of linear fluorescent, u-tube fluorescent, metal halide and any other type of lamping you can think of, it’s difficult on the maintenance staff to keep track of them all. Too often we’ve gone back into projects and clients have installed two or three different color tempera- tures in the same fixtures. The effect is completely different than we designed it, so we try to make it as simple as possible.”
Lighting Controls
Smith points out one of the most com- mon requests from building owners is controllability of lighting systems by the occupants. This originally stemmed from the incentive of LEED credits for energy efficiency through controllability but has evolved to building owners understand- ing the correlation between occupant comfort and productivity.
One of the particular challenges of adding lighting controls has been instal- lation logistics, particularly in retrofit sit- uations, which can be difficult or impos- sible in some cases. Simplified lighting controls are becoming more common and are broken up into two categories, wired and wireless. Some systems utilize a low-voltage cable for wiring that is simpler to install in most spaces. For more difficult spaces, companies have developed wireless lighting controls that communicate wirelessly with controls rather than through traditional hard wir- ing. More complex control functions like daylight dimming, time-based schedul- ing, and occupancy controls of larger areas have never been easier or more cost-effective to implement. In addition to owners’ desires for en-
ergy efficiency, energy codes are becom- ing more stringent. Maximum lighting power densities (watts per square foot of space) have continued to drop, caus- ing lighting designers to become more aware of fixture efficiency. Many of the leading manufacturers have taken note of this and are making fixture selection easier for lighting designers by including fixture and lens efficiency numbers in product specification sheets.