The California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and the U.S. Department of Energy recently completed a state-of-the-art lighting system demonstration at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, California. On March 19th, 2014, the project received an award for “Best Use of Lighting Controls in a Single Facility” from the Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) Campaign. Project findings on both energy savings and lighting quality will be shared with facility managers and energy service companies (ESCOs) in an effort to encourage broader adoption of more efficient lighting systems in the health care sector.
The lighting retrofit consisted of a one-to-one replacement of HPS, metal halide and induction luminaires with LED luminaires. Motion sensors implemented for the project included passive infrared (PIR) technology and a new, long-range microwave sensor. Each luminaire was also configured with a radio frequency (RF) communication module for connection with a mesh network lighting control system.
The system incorporates energy and occupancy logging features, maintenance alerts, fail safe photocells, a digital breaker panel time clock with emergency override to full ON, multi-level scheduling capabilities, and occupancy sensors as inputs to the advanced control system. Based on zone location and space type, the light levels are reduced from high to lower levels during periods of vacancy. Light levels were determined based on IES Recommended Practices, facility requirements, and input from hospital security staff. Metering of the system reports an additional 36.6% annual savings achieved at the site by using this advanced control system configuration.
This project responds to an initiative of the Better Buildings Alliance (BBA) Lighting & Electrical Project Team. It is led, in collaboration, by CLTC and LBNL, in coordination with the BBA Lighting & Electrical Project Team and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This work is funded by Commercial Building Integration within the Building Technologies Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Read a short case study of the project.
Principal Investigator: Michael Siminovitch