ASHRAE Journal - January 2014 - 26

TECHNICAL FEATURE
Advanced Lighting Systems
BY ERIC RICHMAN, MEMBER ASHRAE
When people think about advanced lighting systems,
lamp efficacy and light emitting diode (LED) come to
mind. Others look immediately to potentially complicated
controls. Both views have merit and it is likely the
combination of the two that will form advancements in
lighting energy savings for a fair stretch to come.
A primary driver for advanced lighting for buildings
is the building energy code that has been around since
the 1970s and adopted by states to meet federal legislation.
The legislation currently requires states to adopt a
code that meets or exceeds the stringency in a version
of ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 that is determined to be
most effective.
It is true that LED technology has made great strides
and products exist on the market that can generally
compete with incandescent, CFL, HID, and even the
workhorse of the lighted space-the fluorescent troffer
fixture. However, the market is wide with many product
offerings from many manufacturers (some who
are very new to the lighting industry) and for each
application where effective products exist, potentially
poor substitutes will abound.
Therefore, some simple caution is warranted. But
it is clear that energy effective lamp technology such
as LED will be a primary component of advanced
We make decisions all the time-we are paid to
make decisions. Are we making the right decisions?
What is needed to motivate us to make the right decisions?
Integrated design is a "fuzzy" topic-everyone
talks about it being core to their business- and many
are doing it without changing their previous business
practices. However, success in integrated design
is about delivering substantially more for the same
resources; for example, creating a building that uses
half the energy without increasing the cost.
Avoiding the cost decision means there is no discussion
about cost-effectiveness or return on investment-how
much time do we spend justifying energy efficiency as
a "bolt-on" to a design only to have it value-engineered
out of the process? What is really needed is creative
problem solving to meet the building's functional needs,
while maximizing energy efficiency. Energy efficiency
should be part of the overall design and functionality of
the building, including the architecture.
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ashrae.org JAN UARY 2014
lighting for the future. Fortunately, much information
is available to help users choose good and effective
products and applications.
Lighting controls have been around since the first
light bulb was produced, but much of the advancement
toward more energy effective use of lighting
(controls), has been more recent. One initial significant
component of advanced lighting control was
the simple occupancy sensor. Another was the basic
daylight sensor used to control electric lighting when
not needed. Since then, improvements in advanced
lighting control have been primarily better ways to
use these two initial controls such as combinations of
the two, more effective placement, and more effective
connection such as wireless systems and protocols.
However, although improvements can promise and
deliver more energy savings, the complexity of each
improvement can have its downsides. With more
controls requirements in energy standards such as
ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1, the potential for misapplication
and thwarted use increases as users get farther
away from what they are used to and/or are capable of
effectively working with. What this means is that innovative
ways to simplify these advanced control systems
must emerge soon for the potential savings to be consistently
realized now and in the future.
Eric Richman is senior research engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash.
Owners can motivate this type of thinking by using
a performance-based procurement process for the
building on a fixed price. In this procurement vehicle,
a price is set and a team is competitively selected based
on maximizing the value to the client. The team with
the most creative ideas to maximize energy efficiency
and programmatic needs wins the project.
Where are the opportunities? Designers need to help
owners find them. Start with the plug loads. You can
probably reduce your plug loads by 50% by reducing
printers, shifting to laptops rather than CPUs, improving
the efficiency of on-site servers and their configurations,
and telephone switches. The next big area is
turning things off when not in use. If your building
operates 60 hours per week, 65% of the year the building
should be sleeping. Next is making a commitment
to purchase energy-efficient equipment. Starting this
practice today with new purchases will probably result
in a complete turnover in electronic equipment in

ASHRAE Journal - January 2014

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