Choosing the Right Integrated Lighting System
Integrated Lighting systems are now more of a concept than a clearly defined product. Many companies offer products which are marketed as Integrated Lighting, and these companies offer a specific package of features. The defining feature provided with these systems is adaptability and resourcefulness. Different companies will most often provide their own assortment of sensors and ballasts that control the level of power which is employed. Some manufacturers employ a combination of Solar Power Lights and electrical power to drastically shrink energy usage, and others just exploit the efficient use of existing daylight to cut electrical usage. Depending on the resources of your establishment, and the climate you happen to be in, you can discover one or two features which may make your life less expensive in the long run.
Solar powered lighting has seen widespread use for a generation, yet there are specific obstacles which are still difficult to solve. In certain areas of the world, daylight hours are short in the wintertime, and during these same months, solar collection devices might be rendered useless by cloud cover or snow. By producing an arrangement which uses Solar LED Light Sets when possible, and converts to electric power as required, some manufacturers have efficiently combined energy savings with continuous power availability.
Other manufacturers use practices such as Harvesting Daylight to manage existing power sources in a more reasonable way. To let you harvest daylight, a group of carefully arranged sensors monitors the current daylight levels in a building and then uses ballasts to raise or lower the artificial lighting levels accordingly. Obviously, a shop or office which already has skylights or solar tunnels could benefit most from this practice, yet any structure with reasonable windows can realize an energy savings when incorporating this feature. Harvesting daylight enables a room to be properly lit for the full workday without the lights being completely lit all day, thus saving energy.
The use of programmable timers is not a new system in building management. Programming lights to automatically flip on or off at predetermined hours is able to make a public area safer and more comfortable. The problem with timers, though, is that getting around them is not often straightforward or practical. This can result in entryways or warehouse floors being needlessly lighted on holidays, or staff members stumbling along darkened hallways just because they start work early or stay late. When the timers are combined with occupancy sensors, fortunately, the “common sense” factor can be applied. Any time a staff member is in the room, it is lit, although when a room is unoccupied for a while, the Solar LED Power Light Sets will click off.
If you have an opportunity to plan the construction of a new store, or upgrade an outdated one, it will be time well spent to contact an Integrated Lighting specialist in your state. Once you realize the energy savings that could be the product of a one-time purchase of integrated lighting, you’ll wonder why your company didn’t look into it sooner.
