Pub. 8 2018 Issue 3

18 AUTOMOBILE DEALER NEWS ILLINOIS www.illinoisdealers.com Take Your Lighting to the Next Level T here are a number of energy-saving improvements which qualify for incentives and rebates, but making lighting upgrades is the simplest way to reduce your energy costs. LED lighting technology uses up to 80% less energy and lasts up to 25 times longer than other types of lighting. If you’ve already upgraded your interior and exterior lighting to LEDs, consider integrating controls as your next step toward energy efficiency. Pairing LED technology with automated lighting control systems can help eliminate waste and save your facility a significant amount of energy. Automated controls is a great first step towards a smarter facility – removing the need to change employee behavior. OVERVIEW OF INTERIOR LIGHTING CONTROLS With the use of controls, lights can be turned on or off or ad- justed based on actual need, such as real-time occupancy or ambi- ent light levels. Daylight sensors detect the amount of natural light available and dim or turn off fixtures accordingly. Occupancy and vacancy sensors look similar and they both control lights, but they work in different ways. Occupancy sensors automatically turn lights on when someone enters a space and turns them off when the space is empty after a set time period. A vacancy sensor requires someone to turn on the lights when they enter a room. The lights still automatically turn off after the set time period, but the lights will stay off unless someone enters the room and manually turns on the switch. This can save even more energy by eliminating those extra minutes of unnecessary lighting. There are two major types of sensors; each have strengths and weaknesses: • Infrared sensors – detect motion from a heat source (such as a per- son) and therefore need to see the occupant, so they usually don’t perform well in restroom stalls or office cubicles. Also, slight motions (such as typing on a keyboard) aren’t always detected. • Ultrasonic models – detect motion from objects using sound waves and are good at sensing small movements. They don’t need to see the occupant directly. Occupancy and vacancy sensors are available as wall or ceil- ing mounted units. To avoid false detection with ceiling-mounted sensors, it’s important to specify a viewing range that matches the application. For example, a hallway sensor should look in two directions but not into an office, while a conference room sensor should pick up motion from anywhere in the room. Some of the most common failures of occupancy control systems are from inad- equate sensor coverage or improper tuning of a sensor’s sensitivity. Coverage area of sensors depends on the room arrangement, room geometry, the presence of partitions, type of sensor, loca- tion of sensor, sensitivity setting and type of motion. Ultrasonic sensors cover a wider range than infrared sensors, but are more prone to false triggering from miscellaneous motion not within an