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Reducing Costs, Emmissions |
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Written by High Performing Buildings
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Wednesday, 22 July 2009 20:28 |
Designing Efficient Lighting
Office, retail and service buildings are the largest consumers of energy in the U.S. To reduce energy consumption, lighting strategies can be used and may include simple lamp/ballast changeouts, automatic controls and daylighting. These vary according to a building’s use. Success depends on early collaboration of design, construction and commissioning professionals.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 August 2009 18:59 |
No matter how well integrated and well designed a lighting system may be, it won't work if it hasn't been set up properly. Daylighting systems need to be calibrated, and occupancy sensor settings need to be adjusted so that they sense the motion of occupants (to avoid occupant frustration) and don't sense motion in adjacent spaces and corridors (to avoid wasting energy).
In five years of commissioning experience, no more than a third of the projects I've been involved with have been calibrated prior to the initial commissioning site visit, after the contractors have stated that the system is ready to test. There seems to be a misconception that these sensors are ready to go right out of the box, and unfortunately his is not the case. We've also encountered situations where the electrical contractor and the controls contractor both assume that adjusting lighting control settings is the other's job. Proper setup of lighting control systems is imperative if energy savings are to be achieved.