Controls

Royal Philips Electronics has announced that it has acquired Teletrol Systems Inc., a supplier of integrated solutions for simultaneous multi-site management of lighting and energy usage. The Teletrol product portfolio will strengthen Philips’ range of sophisticated control solutions for institutional customers, including the networked management of lighting and environment facilities, including heating and air conditioning. [...]

Recently, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), PG&E, BetaLED and Echelon Corp. came together to demonstrate how smart streetlight technologies and systems can reduce energy use and carbon emissions while increasing street safety. Streetlighting can consume up to 40% of a city’s electric bill. Echelon is promoting a concept [...]

The Lighting Controls Association (LCA) has announced that EE300: Lighting Control of LEDs has been added to the Association’s popular online Education Express distance education courses. Residing at the Association’s website, www.aboutlightingcontrols.org, Education Express provides in-depth education about lighting controls and controllable ballast technology, application, system design and commissioning, as well as meta-issues such as [...]

The Lighting Controls Association recently published a whitepaper I wrote about a new California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) study on bilevel occupancy sensors. CLTC studied control strategies in eight private offices and found that combining occupancy sensing and bilevel switching produced the highest energy savings—about 50% more than using an occupancy sensor alone. These are [...]

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has revealed the results of new market research that provides a clear picture of America’s need for information about energy and cost saving through modern lighting systems. The research, conducted in conjunction with Today’s Facility Manager magazine, focused on nonresidential building owners and managers. Findings indicate that 41% of [...]

I recently wrote an article for the April issue of Electrical Contractor, about some aspects of integrating lighting control and energy management systems. This is a hot topic because codes now require automatic shutoff of lighting and demand response is going to grow in importance in the future, but EMS traditionally has not done a [...]

Lighting designer Jim Benya, a regular contributor to Architectural Lighting Magazine (my alma mater) and a thought leader in the lighting community, wrote an excellent article about residential lighting controls for the magazine’s April/May issue, which was released at Lightfair. Calling residential a leader in lighting control, he identifies three ways to approach control: * [...]

At Lightfair, I will have the pleasure of presenting a workshop on lighting controls commissioning with Gary Meshberg of Encelium Technologies and David Weigand of Leviton, as part of the Lightfair Institute. The workshop (course #L09W21), “Commissioning and Controls,” will be presented on Monday, May 4, from 2-5PM. This workshop will focus on providing a [...]

PureSpectrum, Inc. will be launching a new line of high-performance compact fluorescents at Lightfair. The company says its new products are fully dimmable, priced affordably, have high power factor, turn on instantly and work in place of any traditional incandescent lamp. One of my biggest complaints about household CFLs is dimming issues, so I’ll definitely [...]