Automatic Light Sensing and Control of Lighting Systems for Energy Conservation

The rapidly rising cost of electrical energy makes its conservation increasingly more important. Electrical consumption can be reduced in a number of ways. One of the simplest is through lighting reduction within this area are a number of options. One easy and often used approach is by removal of lamps however, lamp removal without proper guidance can have seriously adverse effects on health, safety, productivity, and security. Another option is through use of controls this may be as simple as installing switches. Automatic control systems to maintain required illumination levels are necessary if natural daylight from windows are to be effectively used. This report covers 1 an industry survey for commercially available control systems, 2 an evaluation of one commercial automatic control system, and 3 the development and evaluation of two different control systems developed by the Civil Engineering Laboratory. Evaluation of the control systems determined that electrical conservation was realized.