Controls

Installed throughout a building and equipped with sensors designed to collect a variety of data, networked lighting controls are well-positioned to provide the infrastructure that helps buildings respond to the real-time needs of occupants and facility managers alike, writes Christina Halfpenny, Executive Director, the DesignLights Consortium.

The DesignLights Consortium recently simplified its policy and reduced the amount of testing required of manufacturers with its revised Testing and Reporting Requirements for DC and power over Ethernet (PoE) Products.

The University of Oregon recently published a new white paper, “The Impact of Lighting and Views in the Workplace of the Future.” The paper concludes that daylighted spaces with controlled lighting and views can improve occupant well-being, workplace productivity, and satisfaction by positively influencing various physiological and psychological processes. Lighting and views also impact property value and employee recruitment and retention.

Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) is launching the next phase of its evaluations of indoor connected lighting systems. The initial phase, which began in 2017, evaluated 12 systems installed in working classrooms at New York City’s Parsons School of Design, The New School. The new phase will include the upgrade of the existing systems, as well as the addition of new systems that are also marketed as easy to install and configure and consist of LED luminaires with integral, luminaire-level sensors and controls.

To better understand the trend toward luminaire-level lighting controls, Anne Curran, Senior Program Manager for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s Luminaire Level Lighting Controls initiative, interviewed Damon Bosetti, Technical Manager at DesignLights Consortium.

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) and the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) recently announced a new agreement designed to enhance and promote development and adoption of smart building technology.

The Zhaga Consortium and the Digital Illumination Interface Alliance (DiiA) have unveiled their joint Zhaga-D4i certification program, indicating plug-and-play interoperability of luminaires, sensors, and communication nodes.

Lighting Controls Association President Gary Meshberg’s column in the May issue of LD+A argues that lighting controls have evolved to become a key tool for achieving quality lighting.

Connected lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT) promise extraordinary enhanced value for buildings, but this connectivity introduces data privacy and security risks. These issues are growing in importance in the lighting industry, which has the advantage of adopting established best practices but may need to accelerate its learning curve.