Smart lighting control systems

Smarter lights lead to smarter buildings.

Pick a room, any room, and look around. Odds are there’s a lighting fixture close by, wired and ready to work. That simple fact makes lighting fixtures one of the most available, accessible and important entry points into an intelligent building system. At Eaton, our engineers see this as a huge opportunity to re-imagine the way lights look, think and interact with the world around them.

The convergence of technologies, right over your head

Video: Integrated Sensor Control System by Eaton.

With invention of LED technology, lighting became digitized. After decades of advancement, lighting fixtures now have the components it takes to turn everyday lights into smart devices—with all the apps, Big Data intelligence and platform thinking that go along with them. LEDs and integrated lighting controls are already increasing energy efficiency and improving user experiences. But they are quickly emerging as a critical enabler of smarter, more connected buildings.

The rise of integrated lighting controls was driven by a number of factors. New energy codes in virtually every market require the use of more efficient lighting solutions. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 38 percent of all electricity used in commercial buildings is used for lighting. LEDs have proven effective at reducing energy consumption by up to 40 percent or more when compared with traditional light sources. Adding LEDs to a total green energy strategy has become a virtual necessity.

Starting with dimmer switch technology and, later, programmable lighting controls, the lighting industry has been steadily moving along the path toward integrated controls. Now, highly effective occupancy and daylight sensors are allowing lighting fixtures to sense what’s happening around them to ensure that lights are in use only when they’re needed.

Today, Eaton’s revolutionary WaveStream LED technology and embedded sensors have been incorporated into award-winning products like the Metalux Encounter and SkyRidge luminaires, which are optimized to meet energy codes for occupancy sensing and daylight harvesting.

With the rise of addressable controls, lighting is becoming a part of a building’s infrastructure. New software applications, combined with wired and wireless technology, allows lighting controls to “address” an individual fixture—to set illumination levels, make power adjustments and provide feedback to inform maintenance and reporting. Addressable systems, such as the Eaton’s Fifth Light system, allow for intelligent lighting control using a mobile device or a centralized software dashboard.

Merging the vision and the reality

Video: Eaton Fifth Light addressable lighting controls.

Eaton engineers see the day quickly approaching when every lighting device in every room will have not just integrated sensing and control, but valuable data collection capabilities.

Imagine, during a busy workday, being able to instantly find an available conference room thanks to data collected by occupancy sensors within the room’s light fixture. Or creating outdoor lighting patterns at a hospital to help guide patients arriving late at night to emergency room entrances. Or simply giving building owners real-time insights on energy usage and event detection.