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The role of lighting in smart buildings

Author : Shenzhen Crown Lighting

Update time : 2021-06-30 16:36:23

The role of lighting in smart buildings

Lighting plays an important role in the infrastructure of buildings, and with the advancement of smart building technology, energy efficiency and lighting control are easier than ever. Building automation software (BAS) allows facility managers to set lighting schedules, while dedicated lighting control systems can also implement dimming control and "daylight harvesting." When the external light is high enough, turn off the light near the window. These are the most common ways to manage lighting in buildings to save energy, but lighting has many more functions in smart buildings.

IoT Platforms provide lighting control, enabling buildings to sense occupancy patterns and become more intelligent. This new type of lighting control device has a small smart sensor that scan be installed in led lamps and other places. The sensor can track movement, power usage, ambient light and temperature, and act as a Bluetooth beacon. In addition to the obvious benefits of saving energy, occupancy monitoring also provides more features.

If every led light in a building has a sensor, the data captured can help building managers make more informed decisions. Data from sports can show the frequency of space usage, typical paths through buildings, and changes in ambient light and temperature throughout the day, helping to make smart buildings smarter.

How to use lighting technologies ?

Asset tracking

Beacon technology can help track the way objects or people move in space. In environments such as hospitals, caregivers may spend most of their time trying to find medical equipment. This can be significantly reduced by using a Bluetooth transceiver embedded in the lighting controls, which can track the type and location of the asset, so it can take the staff to the nearest necessary item.

COVID-19 solution

In the current pandemic, there are multiple use cases that support smart lighting. This technology allows people to enter and leave buildings in a non-contact manner, help analyze movement patterns, and display frequently used congested areas or paths. You can also support personnel tracking to anonymously track personnel. The system can track all people who have been in contact with an infected person, and then send them an alert to inform them of the potential risk so that they can be tested.

Building maintenance

Being able to track occupancy can save cleaning service costs. The data collected from the lights led can replace your lighting staff to inform you which tables or areas need to be cleaned, instead of cleaning each table at a set time. This can also be applied to restrooms. Send an alarm for cleaning after a certain number of uses instead of cleaning according to the set schedule.

User comfort

Measuring and improving the control of all aspects of the indoor environment to make the building’s residents feel comfortable has become the top priority for building operators. User comfort is related to temperature, humidity, air quality, natural lighting, and safety during a pandemic. Lighting controls that can detect temperature and ambient light levels can help create a more comfortable environment, and can also be adjusted according to the circadian rhythm to adapt to a more environmentally friendly environment (imitating the natural environment). As mentioned earlier, these sensors can also help inform residents of surrounding activities so that they can safely distance themselves from society or know whether they have been in contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Better integration brings operational and energy-saving advantages

Like all other building services installed in a building, historical lighting and its control have been handled in an "isolated" manner as a separate contract package, with little consideration of how to integrate with other systems in the building. Even today, many lighting control systems provided for large-scale commercial projects are still quite proprietary, but at least now at least the standard led lighting equipment level protocol called DALI is used, and an open standard protocol interface is provided for BMS. Usually BACnet IP. However, the use of single-point interfaces between systems can create bottlenecks and increase integration costs. In the case of lighting control, there may be latency issues (triggering events, such as the perceived delay between pressing a light switch and the occurrence of the desired action). An alternative is to integrate lighting control with HVAC at the room level. This method has many advantages and avoids a single system gateway.

Some lighting control suppliers do provide more flexible integration options. The value of tightly integrated lighting control is that the data provided by PIR occupancy sensors and BLE beacons has now become a standard on smarter systems, and can then be used by other building systems to inform their behavior, thereby bringing operational and energy-saving advantages.

Beyond lighting

It is wrong to think of lighting purely as a renovation project or more efficient LED lighting. IoT sensors can provide more functions. The future of lighting is not just automation, it also expands the role of lamps, using them as a means of communication and data collection. By using lighting infrastructure and combining it with powerful BAS, your buildings can become more intelligent, and your lighting can bring more perception to indoor spaces. In the future, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity will adapt lighting to unlimited applications and data collection requirements.

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