Buildings are becoming increasingly more energy efficient—and making life better for occupants thanks to a variety of innovative systems. LED lighting has dramatically cut energy use, with sensors in luminaires adding to the savings by assessing the amount of incoming daylight and dimming the lights accordingly. Sensors also turn lights Off when no one is detected in the space. The sensing platform in lighting systems has become a focus for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its partners—integrating these sensors with non-lighting systems like HVAC can be key to decarbonizing the nation’s buildings while increasing their energy efficiency. For example, HVAC can use lighting sensors to control air flow, humidity and temperature. HVAC can also work with upper-room or whole-room germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) lighting to remove pathogens from interior spaces with each exchange of air.
Achieving interoperability of lighting and other systems designed and manufactured by different industries has been a challenge, as detailed in a previous “Technology” column (LD+A, August 2024) authored by my colleague, Michael Poplawski. That said, buildings across the country are coming online with systems that function together, a fact that DOE promotes through its Integrated Lighting Campaign (ILC), which works with national partners to make buildings more energy efficient and comfortable for occupants. Through the campaign, lighting industry professionals share knowledge, lessons learned, best practices and resources so everyone can take advantage of savings opportunities and the benefits of integrated systems. The ILC recently recognized 16 organizations for exemplary commitment to energy efficiency and environmental responsibility in their buildings. A few examples highlight the possibilities of lighting as a springboard to optimize building performance and the occupant experience.
The Indian Community School (ICS) in Franklin, WI, is a private, inter-tribal school that has provided a distinguished learning environment to the American Indian community of metro Milwaukee for 55 years. Focusing on that critical environment, ICS upgraded its lighting to tunable-white LED fixtures with DALI controls, including dimming, daylight harvesting and occupancy sensing. Classroom fixtures are individually addressable and can be adjusted via wall unit or mobile app. Employing DALI enables integration with the school’s building automation system, allowing occupancy sensors in each classroom to feed data to the HVAC system via BACnet/IP as well as allowing for fault detection and diagnostics (e.g., finding errors with the luminaire, driver, keypad, DALI processor or sensors).
Testing has shown that air exchanges in the HVAC system have been beneficial in tandem with GUV to control COVID-19 and an MS2 challenge pathogen
A second ILC partner, Rémy Cointreau USA, also chose a path to greater energy savings through systems integration. Rémy Cointreau is a leading international distributor of premium spirits and opened a new U.S. headquarters in late 2023 on the 20th floor of 3 Times Square Tower in New York City. The 30,000-sq ft space features an open office plan and indoor and outdoor work and meeting spaces, as well as a wellness and exercise studio. The design called for LED lighting installed with low-voltage DC wiring that connects drivers, lighting sensors and air-quality sensors. Drivers allow for energy monitoring and data collection on light levels, temperature and motion. Installed into the lighting system are integrated air-quality sensors that enable operators to ramp up ventilation in occupied spaces for healthier, morecomfortable indoor air quality. The facility’s manager can run multiple reports on lighting, indoor air quality, temperature and more using a web-based dashboard. This combination of features uses approximately ¼ of the energy of a fluorescent system and provides advanced control capabilities such as occupancy sensing, daylighting, high-end trim and scheduling.
Rémy Cointreau USA Headquarters in New York City.
Not far off, Avenues World School—New York Campus, a 16-grade independent school with nearly 2,000 students in Manhattan, installed GUV luminaires to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne infectious diseases. Upper-room luminaires were employed in the cafeteria, movement areas, gym areas, choral classrooms and theater. Whole-room, far UV-C luminaires were installed in all classrooms. Testing has shown that air exchanges in the HVAC system have been beneficial in tandem with GUV to control COVID-19 and an MS2 challenge pathogen in both classrooms and the 40,000-cubic ft cafeteria.
A fourth project earning praise from the ILC involved GUV at Utica University in upstate New York. During the pandemic, the university installed upper-room GUV technologies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses in 56 classrooms, weight rooms and locker rooms, as well as exam rooms and the waiting room at the campus health center. Independent evaluation of one of the classrooms and the health center found GUV installations delivering more than five air changes per hour to reduce the spread of COVID-19 with low energy use. The university also evaluated the installation of HEPA filters in the HVAC system to reduce disease spread but found the GUV system to be much more cost-effective at 25% of the installation cost of the HEPA upgrade.
These projects highlight the possibilities when seeing lighting controls as the workhorse for integration with other building systems—and the backbone for grid-integrated efficient buildings. By helping buildings be smarter about the amount and timing of energy use, integrated lighting systems can help in our effort to decarbonize U.S. buildings by 2050.
Axel Pearson joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2022 as an energy efficiency project manager, supporting the Energy Efficiency Technologies team with a focus on energy efficient lighting and controls.
