I recently had the opportunity to interview Felipe Leon, Integrated Lighting Campaign Lead, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, for an article I’m developing about the Integrated Lighting Campaign (which will replace the Interior Lighting Campaign) for the Lighting Controls Association, now a sponsor of the U.S. Department of Energy program. The transcript is below.
DiLouie: Let’s start with the Interior Lighting Campaign. When was it formed, what were its goals, and what did it accomplish?
Leon: The Interior Lighting Campaign was launched in 2015 with the goal of helping facility owners and managers take advantage of energy-saving opportunities afforded by high-efficiency interior lighting solutions including luminaires and controls. The initial focus was on troffers, given the market share of those luminaire types in commercial spaces, but the campaign expanded to cover linear suspended, low bay, and high bay luminaires. Through 2019, the campaign logged the planned or completed upgrade or new installation of more than 3.5 million high-efficiency lighting and control systems, with expected energy savings of nearly 800 million kWh and $84 million saved annually in electricity costs. A recently published report details the results of the Interior Lighting Campaign.
DiLouie: The Interior Lighting Campaign is evolving into the Integrated Lighting Campaign (hereafter referred to simply as ILC). Why the change? When will the old ILC become the new ILC?
Leon: Among the reasons for a campaign are to help inform decision-makers about new technologies and to recognize those exemplary projects that are leading the charge in adopting these technologies. When the Interior Lighting Campaign launched, the adoption of high-efficiency troffers was low, benefits were not well understood, and reliable sources of information were not easily found. The campaign worked to compile a list of valuable resources, including case studies and reports on the technology and a list of incentives. Each year the campaign recognized exemplary projects from participants (i.e., building owners and managers) in a public forum and developed case studies on some of these recognized projects. With the adoption of high-efficiency lighting well underway and having achieved its intended goals, the Campaign began to shift its focus to a nascent aspect of lighting systems that can reap additional energy savings and enable other benefits at the building level – integrated lighting. When lighting systems and their network of sensors are integrated with other building systems, opportunities for energy savings beyond lighting (such as in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, and plug loads) and non-energy benefits may become possible.
The new campaign will strive to replicate the success of the Interior Lighting Campaign with a focus on this kind of integration, as well as looking at advanced sensors in lighting that are going beyond the typical occupancy and daylight sensors in use today. The transition to the Integrated Lighting Campaign is currently underway and the team is preparing to formally launch in June. Although the Campaign will not formally launch until June, interested parties (including participants and supporters, such as manufacturers, utilities, energy efficiency organization, and others) can contact us any time by sending an e-mail to integratedlighting@pnnl.gov and join early for special recognition as inaugural ILC partners at launch.
DiLouie: How does it work? Who is targeted, what does the owner have to do, and what do they receive for their commitment?
Leon: The campaign works through the tremendous support of our Organizing partners and the involvement of supporting partners (i.e., Supporters) and building owners and managers (i.e., Participants).
• Participants are the focus of the campaign since they are the ones installing and living with these new technologies, and experiencing their benefits. It is their experiences that help the campaign build a body of knowledge that may then be shared with others interested in replicating their success. This sharing happens through case studies and through project information shared during the recognition events.
• Supporters are also important to the campaign, since they play important roles in the adoption of new technologies and helping connect with potential Participants. Supporters may provide incentives for products (e.g., utilities), actively research the performance and implementation of products in the field (e.g., energy-efficiency organizations), or deliver products for use by Participants (e.g., manufacturers and distributors).
To sign up, a Participant or Supporter can simply visit our website, once it launches, or send an e-mail to integratedlighting (at) pnnl (dot) gov now to get in on the action early. Each Participant or Supporter is asked to pledge their support for the campaign’s efforts. Participants can submit specific project information to be considered for recognition by the U.S. Department of Energy at the annual recognition event.
DiLouie: What are the benefits of energy-efficient lighting and controls, including networked lighting controls?
Leon: Looking at energy-efficient lighting and typical controls such as occupancy, daylighting, and dimming, the benefits are generally tied to energy savings, although some other benefits exist, such as occupant comfort (e.g., adjusting light levels to one’s preference). Both legacy and new luminaires have been able to provide these benefits, although the controllability of light-emitting diode (LED) technology has dramatically improved the performance of these control methodologies. LEDs are able to instantly turn off and turn on to a desired output level. Furthermore, LEDs are now able to allow the color temperature to be adjusted to illuminate a space differently depending on the needs of the activity being performed (e.g., reading, relaxing, etc.) or to synchronize with the expected daylight conditions outdoors depending on the time of day.
Networked lighting controls, and the integration of lighting systems within a building, are enabling new paradigms that extend far beyond lighting. Sensors integrated in luminaires can inform other building systems to more intelligently operate a building. In private offices, for example, a lighting sensor may inform the HVAC system that an occupant is no longer present, allowing the room ventilation to be reduced or stopped and the temperature to be set back a few degrees. In some spaces, the same sensors may be used to inform a controllable plug load, or a piece of equipment, that there is no activity in the area and that the plug/device may be turned off. These are energy-saving measures, but non-energy benefits may be a bigger motivator for building/business owners. The data from occupancy sensors can be used to understand occupancy patterns and trends to improve space utilization, caution about movement in a space where there should be none, or inform of activity in a space to better position resources (e.g., place an employee near a customer in a retail environment for better engagement). These concepts are all leveraging the capabilities of the common sensors that are in use in lighting today. Lighting’s ubiquity, density, and position in a space, combined with the availability of power and, in some cases, a means for communications, may enable lighting to become a platform for other advanced sensors, such as acoustic, air quality, temperature, and humidity sensors, further enabling smart building capabilities.
DiLouie: What pain points in the industry does the Campaign hope to address and thereby accelerate adoption of energy-efficient lighting and controls?
Leon: One of the pain points campaigns try to address is the lack of readily available and reliable information about how a technology performs in similar (peer) building types. By sharing success stories through our recognition events and case studies, the ILC provides other building owners with an understanding of how similar building types have applied advanced sensors or the integration of lighting in their buildings, and the benefits perceived or quantified.
DiLouie: One of the benefits is technical assistance with projects. What forms of technical assistance are available, and how are they delivered?
Leon: The ILC will provide limited technical assistance to Participants. This can take the form of feedback on technology being considered in a project, integration benefits and challenges, and submission of an entry for recognition by the ILC. Since the integration of lighting with other building systems can involve topics such as HVAC and plug-loads, the ILC engages with DOE’s vast network of laboratories in a collaborative way to bring their particular experience to bear.
DiLouie: Another benefit is recognition. What types of recognition are available?
Leon: The ILC is currently assessing the recognition categories that would be most impactful to the lighting industry and to the U.S. Department of Energy’s goals to save energy. Three categories that were established in the last year of the Interior Lighting Campaign will likely be among them: 1) Advanced Use of Sensors and Controls for Lighting is a category that explores how sensors and controls are being used in lighting to enable deeper energy savings than what is afforded through typical occupancy, daylighting, dimming, and scheduling approaches. 2) Integrated Controls for HVAC and Lighting Systems looks at how HVAC systems are able to leverage a lighting system’s sensors to enable deeper energy savings at the building level. 3) Integrated Controls for Plug Loads and Lighting Systems explores how a lighting system’s sensors can interact with controllable plug loads to enable deeper energy savings. There was one other category from the previous campaign, Other Integrated Systems and Lighting, which was a catch-all for other interactions between lighting and building systems. As some interesting use-cases are starting to get some traction (e.g., demand response and grid services, asset tracking, wayfinding, etc.), other specific recognition categories will be developed to capture those projects in particular.
DiLouie: How does ILC regard its partnership with the Lighting Controls Association, and what does it hope LCA will provide to the relationship?
Leon: The ILC is thrilled that the Lighting Controls Association recently agreed to join the campaign as an organizing partner. As we were preparing to shift the focus of the campaign to more advanced uses of lighting, we understood that education about these new capabilities in lighting systems would be key to their success and broader adoption. LCA brings an expertise in lighting education, including advanced lighting concepts, as well as a great network of constituents that may be interested in the efforts of the ILC. Through our collaboration, we hope to influence the adoption of high-efficiency lighting systems that integrate with a building’s other systems and/or leverage advanced lighting sensors or capabilities, and to document successful installations to help build the body of knowledge on this front. Through the education resources established by and freely available at LCA, we hope ILC Participants can gain confidence and comfort with newer lighting technologies that may seem intimidating at first glance. We also look forward to LCA’s participation in our campaign’s Organizing Committee, where they are joined by DesignLights Consortium, Illuminating Engineering Society, International Facility Management Association, interNational Association of Lighting Management Companies, U.S. General Services Administration, and Better Buildings Alliance.
DiLouie: A complementary effort is being made by the Better Buildings Alliance. How do these efforts complement each other?
Leon: There are multiple efforts ongoing with the Better Buildings Alliance and the U.S. Department of Energy that are complementary to the ILC. One such effort is the ongoing evaluation of several sites that have integrated their lighting systems with other building systems. The results of these evaluations will directly feed information to the Campaign, and thus all ILC partners, regarding the performance in these particular buildings and recommended practices for integrating systems. Another effort, the Better Buildings Alliance Lighting and Electrical Technology Research Team, has been around for some time and is available to Better Buildings Alliance members. This team leverages the collective experience of various progressive organizations that are applying, considering, or interested in high-efficiency lighting options and advanced lighting concepts. This is done in a collaborative way through interactive teleconferences held a few times a year.
Lastly, a synergistic effort, the IoT-Upgradeable Lighting Challenge, is shaping up to ensure that the benefits of integration will be available to building owners making lighting decisions today who may not consider, or be ready to take advantage of, the advanced features available in lighting. In essence, the industry will be challenged to develop a cost-competitive (i.e., relative to a baseline) light fixture that can be easily upgraded after installation with Internet-of-Things devices and sensors. More information about that will be posted or linked on the ILC website as it develops and the Challenge is launched.
DiLouie: What do you hope the ILC will be able to accomplish in the next five years?
Leon: Our hope for the ILC in the next five years is that several businesses will have been able to navigate the rough waters of a new technology – a new paradigm, really – to generate energy savings and business insights that were not available in the past without a significant investment in resources, and that their efforts were aided by the available resources and technical support available through the ILC. Further, we hope that some of these businesses will pay it forward by sharing their project(s) with the ILC to both earn recognition and allow others to learn from their successes and challenges.
DiLouie: If you could tell all lighting practitioners only one thing about the Integrated Lighting Campaign, what would it be?
Leon: It is free to join the ILC, so there’s nothing to lose, but so much to gain from hearing of other’s experiences, both the good and the bad, which might help ensure the success of your own projects. And recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy for an exemplary lighting project or two can’t hurt either.
DiLouie: Is there anything else you’d like to add about this topic?
Leon: Lighting is already going through a transformation from low-efficacy to high-efficacy products with better controllability. The opportunity that connectivity and the Internet-of-Things enable in lighting systems will generate added value to building owners and improve the way buildings and businesses operate. It is an exciting time ahead for lighting system integration and we look forward to seeing it develop.
