In Control

Geoff McCann, managing director of Electrak International, discusses keeping wasted energy under control. This article appeared in the November issue of Total Lighting magazine.

Once considered a ‘touchy-feely’ PR exercise, corporate and social responsibility is now measured as part of many company’s bottom line and can even affect the share price of publicly listed companies. And yet, according to the national press, big commercial institutions are still not doing enough to save energy within their buildings, so what’s stopping them from ensuring their lights are switched off at night?

It is widely accepted that lighting controls represent one of the most cost-effective energy saving measures available, by automatically switching lights on and off using features such as daylight sensors and PIR motion sensors. They can deliver energy savings of as much as 30-40%, both directly and by reducing cooling loads. Moreover, much of this technology is not new and it is now a mandatory aspect of the latest building legislation such as Part L, so can there really be any excuse for leaving the lights on?

We at Electrak, (manufacturing the Lightrak lighting control system and buscom trunking), believe the main reason is the lack of flexibility offered by many lighting systems. Lighting controls need to be appropriate to the building’s users. During the lifetime of a building both its occupiers and their business requirements may change on a regular basis, so what might have been ideal when the lighting control system was first commissioned may be far from perfect later down the line.

What’s more, a design that may have seemed great on paper can be a very different ball game in practice. The installation may include some really good ideas in the design, but it’s only when the occupier arrives that they can really test out what works for them, and they may find some of the choices difficult to live with.

Presence detectors are a classic example of a frequently used lighting control device that can prove more of a nuisance than a benefit to the end user once they occupy the building. A PD is used to turn lights on when it senses movement, but if the building has a night security guard carrying out regular walkabouts, then the lights will be turning themselves on all night, defeating the object entirely. Much more effective in these circumstances are absence detectors, where manual controls are used to turn the lights on, and these are turned off by an absence of movement. Combine that with a “night” mode, where a much smaller array of lights is switched on during out-of-hours, and you already have a much more effective control system.

What facilities managers need to avoid is throwing the baby out with the bathwater by simply removing the intelligence from their controls when they come across problems or need to make changes. Instead a system needs to be flexible enough to adapt within its environment according to the real world needs of its users - and it’s this concept that drives the development of Electrak’s lighting control products.

All control systems need access to power and to a control signal and, typically, each component of the system is individually wired to both. Not only does this take time and increase the number of potential failure points, it means that any future modifications may need significant re-cabling, which is disruptive, costly and time-consuming.

Electrak’s innovative approach to tackling this issue has led to the creation of a busbar hybrid, a technology known as buscom trunking. This modular distribution system carries power and separate control signal in one casing. Installation of parallel runs of this in a ceiling void, with regular tap off points for localised access, ensures that any future modifications require no cabling changes at all, since access to power and comms can be achieved simply with a plug-in tap off. Buscom trunking is also extremely reliable and incredibly fast to install, as lengths simply click-fit together.

Adding to this speed and ease of installation ethos, Electrak’s Lightrak lighting control system has been designed to be fully modular. Everything has been designed to be plug and play, with many components programmed off-site, allowing further time savings to be made during installation. It uses the increasingly popular KNX protocol. All KNX-certified devices can be programmed using the same software tool, and there are over 100 manufacturers of KNX components including Siemens, ABB and Jung. As a result, regardless of how needs might change in the future, it will be quick and cost effective to adapt the existing lighting control system simply by plugging in additional components from this huge pool of technology and re-programming. With a large and growing number of KNX integrators operating in the UK, facilities managers have future-proofed access to system support, or can even undertake the simple training themselves at places such as the BRE.

Lighting controls have the potential to be the single most significant energy saving initiative within a building. But there is too often a big difference between the designed savings and those achieved once a building is operational and throughout its lifecycle. Good intentions alone will not save energy and unless the lighting controls installed can adapt quickly to changes in the building’s tenant list or usage, putting them in place is a fruitless box ticking exercise.