BUILDING CONTROLS & TECHNOLOGY
Light monitoring dashboards: a revolutionary tool for building management
When it comes to building maintenance, any system or technology that reduces workloads and simplifies reporting is set to be a hit with building services professionals. Add in the potential to improve energy efficiency and reduce operational costs and it may just sound too good to be true. But it’s not. Light Monitoring Dashboards – one of the latest innovations in the commercial lighting world – do exactly that. Here, Chris Anderson, technical manager at Ansell Lighting, explains more
I
f you were offered a way to improve the productivity of your working day whilst also hitting reduced energy use targets and streamlining building maintenance, what would you say? For most building services professionals,
we’re pretty sure they’d want to know more and that is exactly what a brand- new technology in the lighting arena has been designed to deliver. Light monitoring dashboards are a cutting- edge tool that, when integrated with smart lighting systems, provide users with real-time data and analytics on lighting performance, energy usage and maintenance needs. Revolutionary, they are enabling facilities managers to monitor, manage, and optimise their lighting environments like never before. Operable across an entire lighting network – whether that is a single room, individual floor, whole building or estate – light monitoring dashboards provide users with a comprehensive view of their lighting systems from one central hub, making it significantly easier to manage site performance across buildings and wider estates.
Their operation is simple. Integrated with smart lighting systems, light monitoring dashboards collect data from all connected devices across an entire lighting network. This data is then collated and displayed in a user-friendly interface to provide full visibility of the lighting infrastructure at a glance.
This functionality offers many benefits and is quickly proving to be an invaluable tool for those involved in day-to-day building management.
The first major benefit is its impact on routine maintenance. With the performance of all smart lighting fixtures visible in one central location, the need for time-consuming manual inspections is eradicated. Maintenance needs can also be predicted before issues arise, minimising the risk of unexpected failures, which can be costly and disruptive. This advantage expands to emergency lighting too. By monitoring all emergency lighting assets in real-time, dashboards can issue instant alerts if any component fails – helping to heighten building safety and ensure critical systems are always operational. Similarly, statutory testing can also be conducted through light monitoring dashboards, allowing users to perform scheduled function and duration tests remotely. This not only ensures building safety standards are consistently met but also reduces the labour and time required to complete routine compliance tasks.
Alongside the actual testing process, the efficiency of statutory reporting can also be vastly improved with the use of light monitoring dashboards. With all lighting data stored in one centralised location, reports can be compiled at the simple touch of a button, streamlining compliance audits and ensuring documentation can be accessed instantly when needed.
Another major advantage of light monitoring dashboards for building services professionals is their ability to improve energy optimisation. The real-time data they provide can be used to quickly identify operational inefficiencies, such as fittings that are in use unnecessarily or operating outside defined parameters. In addition, settings such as colour temperature, brightness, and intensity can be adjusted remotely and responsively, helping to fine-tune performance across the lighting network. When you consider that lighting can account for up to 40% of a commercial building’s total electricity use, (according to The Carbon Trust) the potential impact these light monitoring dashboards can have becomes clear. By giving facilities teams the insight needed to evaluate energy use and the remote access required to control it, they will not only support organisations to reduce expenditure but help to achieve sustainability targets. This provision of remote access and control is another major benefit of light monitoring
dashboards in its own right, allowing facilities teams to monitor and manage lighting systems off-site. This is particularly useful for large estates, multi-building campuses or out-of-hours operations, reducing the need for site visits and allowing quicker, more flexible management. Light monitoring dashboards can also assist with asset management, helping building services professionals to monitor the age, usage and performance of lighting systems in one simple platform. This helps with planning maintenance, scheduling upgrades and of course budgeting for such works more accurately and efficiently. One final area that light monitoring dashboards can also support with is occupant health and wellbeing. As we know, circadian rhythm has a huge impact on humans and can even influence productivity and performance. By optimising lighting conditions automatically - through daylight harvesting or occupancy-based control - dashboards can help building operators to create more comfortable environments for occupants, supporting concentration, reducing fatigue, and enhancing overall wellbeing. In an environment where energy efficiency,
reliable performance statutory compliance is in constant demand, the advantages of incorporating light monitoring dashboards are clear to see. Offering building services professionals a smarter, more proactive way to manage their lighting infrastructure, they will not only ease day-to-day operational pressures but will also help organisations to achieve safety, comfort and long-term sustainability goals. With increasingly stringent regulations around building energy performance and reporting, investing in light monitoring dashboards now can also help futureproof facilities. Features such as automated logging, fault tracking and performance analytics mean facilities teams are always one step ahead - ready for audits and able to demonstrate compliance.
8 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JUNE 2025 Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42
