White Paper

White paper
|
Integ rated Lighting Controls
|
04 March 2014
6
A white paper issued by: Siemens.
© Siemens AG 2014. All right s rese rved
“A lot of systems haven't actually performed as expected,
especially when it come s to energy,” he says. “They might
function when they're first commissioned, but people tend to
override things or maybe they never were com missioned
properly, so none of that's really comm unicating and per-
forming as needed.” Without the energy monitoring, it was
impossible to track performance, so facility managers didn't
really know what was going on.
Better building operations extend beyond the fac ilities de-
partment as well. Of course, actually op erating the building is
the key role of fa cilities, but another function is setting up
the building in a way so that occupants can do what they
need to do in the course of a day.
Integrated controls can help with this by offering more flexi-
bility in light levels and scheduling. While one department
may want high light levels from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., another
department may prefer lowe r light levels and only need light
at all until 5 p.m. And in the case of some thing like a sales
team, their space may only be occupied a fra ction of the
time, so lig hts can
be tu
rned off entirely for much of th e time
and brought up when meetings are being held or staff is in
the office. In addition, lighting components such as occupan-
cy sensors that can report back to the BAS help manage light
levels du ring times when a department or a certain area of
the building is unoccupied. If everybody in accounting goes
to lunc h at noon, the controls can turn off the ligh ts and
adjust the HVAC accordingly, then reset when occupants
begin re-en tering the space.
Going hand-in-hand with this is th e ability to offer users
individual control of ligh t levels, which Plumpton says are
often determined by the type of occupant in th e space.
“Certainly th e tech industry is filled with bright young people
who are very used to working in lower light levels,” he says.
Giving occupants the ability to control light levels from their
own device provides them a degree of con trol and interac-
tion with the building that otherwise is not available.
Much of this, of co urse, can be done with standard lighting
controls. But what integra tion offers is the ability to combine
all of these different methods of
control in
to one central
system that allows for flex ibility on both the part of the end
user and th e facility manager. Another area where integra-
tion can support better building operation is in tracking how
the building is being used. With lighting components that
can report occupancy or vacancy, the BAS can track how
often Conference Room A or Lighting Zone 5 is be ing used
and provide facility managers with informatio n that allows
them to get a better handle on how occupants are working
within the space. In some cases, facility management teams
are developing operating algorithms based on data reporting
that gives them a fine-grained look at how the building is
being used, says Mead.
“Just because you have the data doesn’t mean it’s being used,
and that’s something we’re seeing as there’s a lot more in-
formation flowing,” he says.
Getting It Right
In a fully integrated controls system, lighting controls and
BAS can work together to offer greater benefits than th ey can
on their own.
But
,
as with most building systems, facility managers need to
keep a close eye on how th e building is being operated to
maximize those
benefits.
Int
egration can help overcome — or at least mitigate —
some of the common operating mistakes such as HVAC set-
points and ligh t levels being overridden fo r even ts, then
never being put back. By reporting occupancy status, light
levels an d HVAC settings for an area, the controls can at least
give building operators a report th at the space is being treat-
ed differently than it should.
But, no matter how good the co ntrols, the hum an fac tor still
matters. Integrated controls can offer a cornucopia of infor-
mation, but acting on that info rmatio n is what raises a build-
ing to a higher level of performance.
Part of acting on that inf orma tion is understanding that while
efficiency is an admirable goal, it's not the only benefit from
integrating controls. Being able to give users more control
can not only help meet efficiency goals — as one example,
users who have in divid ual light controls in their space tend to
actually use light levels below what the facilities team ex-
pects to be used — but can help occupants embrace what's
going on in the building and co ntribute to its success.
"How you interface between
the user co
ntrols and the auto-
mation is a very delicate balance,” says Mead. Facility man-
agers don’t want the users to feel that the building is ruling
their lives and forcing them to do things they don’t want to
do, but at the same time, it’s important to ensure that the
building is hitting its performance targets, so th at the organi-
zation is getting the expected return on th e investment in
sophisticated controls, says Mead. "There’s a real art to that
in operation."
Photo credits:
Page 2: Dennis van de Water
Page 3: Je ff Whyte / Shutterstock.com
Siemens Indus try, Inc.
Infrastructu re & Cities Sector, Building Technologies Division
1000 Deerfield Parkway, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
Tel: [phone]
www.siemens.com
All rights re served. All tra dema rks used
are owned by Siemens or their respective owners.
© Siemens AG 2014