As new illumination technologies gain acceptance and energy efficiency gains more importance, fully integrated lighting systems are emerging as the favoured lighting control solution. John Gunton illuminates the way forward.
Today’s building owners are increasingly demanding advanced levels of controllabili ty over their facilities. As a result, automated control systems dedi cated to services such as lighting, temper ature, audio visual and blind control are becoming commonplace. Somewhat ironi cally, the proliferation of such systems is being overshadowed by the increased requirement for energy efficiency.
Historically, separate vendors supplied control systems for each application. Yet while individual control systems go some way to achieving accurate control and streamlined management of building serv ices, building owners are quickly becom ing aware of the benefits of implementing a single integrated system. The challenge here, however, is to integrate the separate control systems in such a way as to avoid duplication of infrastructure, permit the sharing of information between control systems and provide future-proofing for new and developing technologies.
Lighting control systems with the abil ity to incorporate third-party systems are emerging as a critical component of inte grated systems. Furthermore, by imple menting a fully integrated lighting con trol solution with connectivity to the BMS, building owners can realise high levels of system controllability, interoper ability and scalability, as well as signifi cant energy savings.
Integrated information
Interoperability between individual ‘best- of-breed’ control systems is the key to successful integration. The challenge here is to integrate multiple systems while still maintaining the high levels of specialised functionality of each individ ual control system.
There are many ways of achieving this. One approach is to attempt to intercon nect all systems on a single network using a single communication protocol. This can work, but tends to limit the function ality of the overall system. An alternative method is to interconnect separate sys tems in a way that enables the overall sys tem to leverage and share available data irrespective of the communication proto cols, while also ensuring that the func tionality of individual control systems remains unchanged.
More so than most dedicated control systems, lighting control has unique requirements not readily supported by traditional automation protocols. In fact, systems capable of accommodating com plex lighting control applications require a level of sophistication that is not practical to implement in generic control systems. As a result, a number of different lighting control systems capable of incorporating new lighting technology such as LED and OLED are emerging.
Lighting control systems need to be able to support multiple communications protocols. This allows separate control systems to share information.
Such levels of control system integra tion means a single network can be used to access and distribute lighting directives and other control system information.
Efficient by nature
Moving forward, there will be an increas ing push for lighting providers to engineer lighting control systems that return dividends to the building owner in the form of energy savings. This movement is complemented by the evolution of building regulations and the increased value placed on environmental design and rating tools. Here, integration plays a major role.
By their very nature, integrat ed lighting control and automa tion systems are an effective energy management tool. By simply ensuring lighting is only activated when and where it is required, energy savings can be realised.
In fact, the majority of build ing regulations can only be satis fied with the aid of an integrated lighting control system that offers high levels of ‘granular’ control. These systems are fast becoming essential to energy efficient building management.
For example, smart lighting systems with presence-sensing and zoning capabilities can be configured to establish which areas of the building are in use — these areas can be kept illumi nated, with the lighting shut off in unused areas. Of course, in true integrated control, this information can be shared with other control systems which are then able to trigger a pre-pro grammed response of their own. In the case of temperature control systems, this would mean increasing or decreasing the temperature or shutting down altogether.
Strategic management
An important and often underesti mated consideration is accommo dating changes within the building once constructed. This is especially pertinent looking ahead, as newer buildings are often designed to be flexible in their layout and functionality.
Furthermore, over its lifetime, a building will experience ‘building churn’ where tenancies change, staff numbers fluctuate and office activities vary. Here, the lighting system must also be adaptable.
By implementing an integrated lighting control system which can accommodate this reconfiguration of space and adopting a scalable, distributed approach to lighting control, building owners can avoid wasteful and intrusive lighting refurbishments and extend the life time of their lighting system.
Other energy saving strategies that look set to gain popularity include ‘daylight harvesting’ and luminaire dimming.
Often, natural light levels need only to be enhanced with small amounts of artificial light. Automated lighting control sys tems with luminaire dimming allow users to vary the amount of artificial light delivered to different areas of the building at different times of the day.
LED the way
The emergence of LEDs as a com mercial lighting option is exciting from an energy management per spective. However, LED systems are going through a transition peri od from a purely decorative light source into a replacement option for incandescent light sources, with the eventual possibility of replacing fluorescents.
The ‘sticking point’ here is that there is no standard way of con trolling LED fixtures. With a reso lution seemingly a long way off, lighting control system providers need to accommodate current LED control methodologies, as well as provide scope to evolve with, and accommodate, new illu mination technologies.
Moving forward, the challenge will be for lighting solutions providers to invest heavily in research and development to pro duce a whole new generation of controllers that can accommodate a variety of lighting systems. In the short-term, enhancements to DALI controllers and phase-con trol dimmers and new load-specific modules for modular controllers will go some way to addressing this LED transitional period. There is also the longer-term challenge of integrating LED and OLED sys tems, as well as emergency lighting systems, into one control scheme.
The functional and energy sav ing potential of lighting control systems is an exciting prospect. Whether it’s building-wide control lability or world-class energy man agement, fully integrated lighting control systems will be critical in the success of modern building developments.
John Gunton, managing director at Philips and Dynalite, has been involved in the lighting control and electronics industries since the early 1970s. During the 1980s, Gunton pioneered the use of preset scenes in the hotel and hospitality industries, which led to the devel opment of Dynalite’s first dimmer load controller.
