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The US Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has detailed a living laboratory test of solid-state lighting (SSL) and controls on a 40,000-ft2 floor in a New York commercial office building. Berkeley Lab worked with the Building Energy Exchange (BEEx) on the LED lighting project that also included comprehensive light and occupancy sensors along with connected window shade controls. Berkeley Lab believes the work will speed market adoption of smart lighting and the BEEx will use the work to further its educational mission, serving lighting designers and specifiers that are working on commercial spaces.
Lately, much of our coverage about smart lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT) has been focused on what lighting-based connectivity can offer in supporting new applications and services such as indoor positioning, security, asset tracking, and more. For example, Acuity Brands said earlier this year that it has deployed indoor positioning technology in 20 million ft2 of retail space. The IoT hype can make it easy to forget that networked control of lighting and shades confined to a space such as an office floor can deliver tremendous benefits in energy used.
Still, roadblocks to more smart lighting installations remain. “Context matters when it comes to figuring out where the market barriers are with respect to contractors, facility managers, and office workers — isolated tests in a laboratory environment are often not enough,” said Eleanor Lee. “Reducing stakeholders’ uncertainty about performance and occupant response in a real-world setting can be critical to accelerating market adoption.” Lee is the Berkeley Lab scientist that led the New York project intended to document the benefits of smart lighting in a working office space — thus the characterization as a living lab.
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