FOCUS: SMART BUILDINGS & CONTROLS Time to see the light?
Russell Joseph, national technical sales manager for controls at Luceco looks at how organisations can take control of their lit environments
T
here has probably never been a more poignant time in the history of the human race to consider the environmental impact of everyday products and services we use, on a daily basis. With
global instability regarding the cost and supply of energy a major concern and the speed of consumption of the available resources - action is required. As organisations confront current austerity and budget limitations, it is important to understand that inefficient lighting can account for very large proportions of the electricity bill. Making the right luminaire choices can reduce existing operating costs by as much as 50%. LED lighting can deliver huge savings, delivering quality lighting, that costs less to run, lasts much longer and requires no maintenance over the lifetime of the luminaire. But this should not be news, the evidence has been with us for some time now. However, are we maximising control over our improved lit environment? How many of us ensure that lighting is only used when we need it and are we harvesting natural daylight to its full potential when available? The government have flagged this as an important question and have responded by introducing the 2021 edition of Part L: Volume 2 covering buildings other than dwellings. It has increased the minimum efficacy for general lighting installed in non-domestic buildings from 60 Llm/cW to 95 Llm/cW and added requirements for automatic controls to be used in all spaces within a building; and for daylight controls to be used where there is available daylight.
6.63 states that unoccupied spaces should have automatic controls to turn general lighting off when the space is not in use and that occupied spaces should have automatic controls where suitable for the use of the space and further refers to the use of presence detection. Following this, 6.64 says that general lighting in occupied spaces should have daylight controls such as photo-switching and dimming for parts of the space which are likely to receive high levels of natural light. Lighting controls can often seem a daunting prospect with the emergence of complicated
18 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER FEBRUARY 2023
control systems and ever-evolving terminology. With multiple platforms available it can be daunting to the client who has a clear goal in mind. It is paramount to understand the importance of allowing the end user to control their own space. Whether a small office, or larger estates, it should be possible to provide a lighting control solution.
So, is it time to talk about the controls available? PIR and microwave sensors can be used to detect presence and turn lighting on when a space is occupied and turn them off when it isn’t. These devices can also incorporate daylight sensors to turn off or dim down lighting in the presence of sufficient daylight. Sounds good in a new installation but how about existing lighting installations? Wireless controls can make the process of upgrading old buildings seamless and easy without the need to install extra control wiring into the fabric of the building. New connected lighting services can provide rich granular data to the end user regarding the energy consumption of the building. It can show real- time usage of energy consumed along with occupancy maps of the building to enable decisions to be made about how to customise the lighting system for the best energy savings and user experience. It can also automate the process of managing the emergency lighting by scheduled testing and reporting as function and duration tests, further savings on maintenance can be easily found here. By adding lighting controls, correctly programmed, organisations can save, on average, up to another 30% on lighting energy consumption on top of switching to LED luminaries. The control of Light is essential to our wellbeing,
productivity, and leisure time. With increasing pressure for buildings to be environmentally friendly and energy efficient, LED luminaire technology coupled with lighting controls can help save not only energy consumption and help meet an organisation’s environmental targets and “Net Zero” aspirations, but also ensure spaces are lit well to provide safety, security and comfort using scene setting, presence detection and daylight dimming controls.
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Lighting controls will now become standard in many new installations, but Luceco has also provided solutions for refurbishments in existing infrastructure with both wired and wireless lighting controls. The Platform and Elevate systems offer wireless controlled lighting solutions – Platform offering simple and cost-effective wireless control, with Elevate benefitting the client with a function- rich system including energy and emergency lighting reports, asset tracking, as well as the primary functions of dimming, scene setting, presence and daylight control. All of these features can have a transformative impact on the overall performance of a building, as we remember again, that lighting is a major contributor to the energy consumption of a building.
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