Edward Lees, Senior Product Line Manager of Lighting Controls at Feilo Sylvania, outlines the benefits of the company’s Organic Response enabled luminaires for installers and their clients.
Basic lighting controls have long been used to effectively reduce energy bills. Dimming lights with presence detectors and using daylight sensors to reduce light levels are both popular options to avoid wasting energy as illumination is only provided when and where it is needed. Although these offer a simple entry into lighting controls, the systems lack interactivity with end users. These systems do not fully exploit the energy saving potential available and suffer from many shortcomings; most notably that they do not always detect presence accurately or leave the lights on for an extended period after no occupancy. More evolved controls systems such as DALI do offer more scope for room level control interactions and a wider sensor network of connected devices. However, this type of control can be costly in terms of hardware, take a long time to install and are complicated and expensive to commission with little flexibility when the space use changes. Many controls systems can be too complicated for users to use or change, which results in them being abandoned, leaving expensive hardware not delivering the controlled light experience wanted and wasting energy needlessly.
For lighting controls to be adopted they must be easy to install and cause minimal disruption to the application area. To deliver true savings for the customer, the system should also ensure a respectable payback period. For lighting controls to be embraced by the end user, they must be intuitive and be easily customised without complex software or hardware.
Flexible solution
Control systems often require extensive controls cabling to connect to each luminaire as well as complex and expensive controls hardware, which can only be setup by a qualified engineer. These systems can be daunting to use and to make changes to, requiring re-commissioning when either the space usage changes or something goes wrong. This complexity combined with lack of flexibility usually results in the system not actually being used by the end user as it is either too difficult to use or no longer meets their needs.
Feilo Sylvania has introduced a lighting control system which aims to overcome all of these issues. Our luminaires with integrated Organic Response sensors contain an integrated lighting control system in their own right with the ability to adjust individual light levels based on the occupancy and ambient light levels in the vicinity of each luminaire.
By utilising integrated sensors and controls, no central controls hardware and no room based sensors need to be wired in allowing for a speedy installation; simply connect Live, Earth and Neutral and that is it. Although this is clever, the system does not stop there. With Infrared communication integrated into each luminaire, the luminaires communicate with each other automatically, sharing information about occupancy and light levels from neighbouring luminaires. Using wireless communication there is now no need for additional controls cabling. The microprocessor in each luminaire sensor automatically detect which luminaires they are next to and commission themselves, communicating with neighbouring products so that lighting levels seamlessly rise and fall with people as they move through the space taking ambient light levels into account.
Without the need for complex commissioning, the Organic Response enabled luminaires enable a dramatic reduction in the amount of time a floor is out of use and a reduction in the total cost of installation. And if the use of the space changes, the system automatically adjusts without need for re-commissioning.
Users can even fine tune the lighting control settings of each individual luminaire through an intuitive, easy-to-use mobile app and with the battery powered wireless wall switch, users can interact with the luminaires without having to run any new cables and place exactly where needed including on glass partitions.
This reduction in hardware combined with reduced installation time and no commissioning means the Organic Response enabled luminaires deliver a fully controlled solution which is typically lower in cost than a complete DALI system (up to 30% lower system cost). By having an intelligent sensor in each luminaire provides more control over the light output of each luminaire based on the precise environmental conditions. Individual lights are only on if needed and only to the precise light level required offering significantly higher energy savings.
Organic Response Savings
Independent reports from Arup and case studies from E.ON have shown that Organic Response luminaires can save up to 34% vs. a DALI installation. In retrofit applications, moving from conventional fluorescent lighting to LED luminaires can help save 50% energy. By combining this saving with Organic Response controls, this can provide an additional 68% energy resulting in a total energy saving of up to 84%, making payback not only quick, but also simple.
