LIGHTING & LIGHTING CONTROLS Smart occupancy: lighting where it’s needed
Rachel Morris, marketing manager of Ansell Lighting looks at some smart lighting features how they can translate into energy, cost and environmental savings
T
he ONS has reported that 84% of those who worked from home during the pandemic plan to continue a hybrid working pattern in the future – meaning many commercial spaces are under- utilised and other employers have chosen to downsize and operate a hot-desking system to accommodate the staff more flexibly. Coupled with energy prices continuing to increase, the need for ‘smart occupancy’ lighting systems has never been greater.
After spending months working from home during the pandemic, many office-based staff are reluctant to return to the commute spend and are asking their employers if they can continue working remotely, at least part of the time. This month the Netherlands has announced it is on the cusp of making working from home a legal right in a radical move that experts believe could be replicated across Europe. Whilst nobody can predict whether the UK will follow suit, what is certain is that ‘hybrid’ working is growing in popularity and looks like it’s here to stay. But what’s the impact on the commercial property sector? Whilst this change is set to pose many advantages for individuals and organisations alike, this flexible approach will also open up a wave of new challenges for businesses to address. Not least when it comes to lighting use and minimising the potential for unnecessary energy consumption and waste. With regimented
office working practices out of the window there is real potential that businesses will use energy unnecessarily, resulting in unwarranted expenditure and negatively impacting carbon footprint. But there is a quick and easy solution to this potential challenge - smart lighting. Using automation to ensure that lighting is only used where and when it is needed, smart lighting is the perfect solution for workplaces that are being used sporadically or where lighting requirements change regularly and according to the movement of its users. It is an energy efficient, cost-effective solution that allows users to optimise lighting use, giving complete control over when lights are on or off or set to specific scenes or temperatures. It eliminates the reliance on human intervention, reducing the risk of users accidentally leaving the lights on and wasting energy and what’s more is ideal for use in almost any indoor or outdoor setting, from offices and industrial spaces to car parks and external pathways. It can also help to influence mood and wellbeing, improve safety and security and heighten productivity in the workplace. Crucially, smart lighting solutions for the commercial space now come with dashboard controls which allow building managers to optimise office lighting performance and accurately measure energy usage in real time. Full control of the lighting throughout your facility lets you reduce CO2 emissions, make progress towards your sustainability goals, and lower energy usage and costs throughout your office building or entire business. Making the switch to LED is an easy way to achieve 40% energy savings, but by adding smart controls, you can save an additional 20-25%. Combining this with use of presence detection sensors also means that you only use light when it’s needed and the lighting dims automatically when no one is around.
What smart lighting offers is the potential to have a clear view of lighting-based energy consumption data across one office or an entire portfolio of offices. This provides the building manager with the data to compare sites to benchmark usage and identify opportunities to reduce CO₂ emissions and costs throughout the business. Each of the connected light points reports measured energy consumption to the network. The energy consumption data can then be visualised on a dashboard providing insights into how much energy is consumed per area on an hourly, daily, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. By combining this information with other data such as presence detection, shift patterns and work activity rosters it is possible to draw conclusions on how lighting energy use can be further reduced or optimised by
adapting lighting schedules fit operational needs. The key with lighting for smart occupancy is
to provide light only when it is needed. Smart lighting controls remove the onus on the individual employee to make energy saving decisions, and instead allow the remote creation of lighting schedules which can fit around shift patterns, working hours or seasons. Connected LED luminaires throughout the building can be controlled remotely by a software which allows the user to drill down to a single light point, even granting permissions and access rights to different employees for various parts of the building. The ability to get to this level of granular details also means having the option to give all employees a level of personal control over their localised light settings, to allow them to set lights to their own comfort level.
Occupancy sensors in the connected lighting system continuously collect data on how space in a building is used. With the UK’s working patterns changing so significantly, having insight into which spaces are being used over a given period provides invaluable insight to help reduce costs and even schedule building support services more intelligently. For example, if lighting controls provide data about which meetings rooms have not been used in a day, you do not need to schedule cleaning of an unused room, reducing operational costs further.
14 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER AUGUST 2022 Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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