Light-RITE California—Giving public facility managers the knowledge and tools they need to implement best practices and maximize energy efficiency across the state.
California’s 2013 Title 24 requirements for building energy efficiency call for some high-efficacy lighting in a limited number of residential space types, such as kitchens and bathrooms. A future code requirement that all residential lighting be high efficacy has the potential to yield significant energy savings across the state, but implementation must first be proven practical and cost-effective.
CLTC and UC Davis have partnered with affiliate American Honda Motor Co., Inc. on the Honda Smart Home US project. Groundbreaking took place April 23, 2013 at UC Davis West Village. Project leaders from UC Davis and Honda celebrated the project's completion at an open house event on March 25, 2014. The zero net energy (ZNE) home is a model of residential sustainability, demonstrating best-practice solutions for lighting in new construction projects.
The California Lighting Technology Center is working with the Institute for Sustainable Performance of Buildings (SuPerB) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to develop and distribute a free, open-source computer resource for green-building education.
The UC Davis Smart Lighting Initiative was established in 2010 to improve the quality and efficiency of both indoor and outdoor lighting on campus. The initiative's primary goal is to reduce UC Davis's electricity use for lighting by 60 percent, based on 2007 levels of energy use. The effort was inspired by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and its call to reduce statewide electricity consumption for lighting by 60 percent or more by 2020.
Exterior lighting for streets, roadways, parking lots, and other outside sites represents nearly 10% of the electricity consumed on military bases. Lighting in these areas typically consists of high pressure sodium or sometimes metal halide lamps that are normally controlled by photo-sensors located centrally or sometimes on each fixture. This limited functionality includes turning the lights on in the evening and off in the morning regardless of occupancy levels, thereby consuming more electricity than necessary.
CLTC and the Energy Efficiency Center at UC Davis partnered with Chevron Energy Solutions to map out California's current streetlight infrastructure. Researchers gathered data on 1.1 million streetlights from 212 cities throughout the state.
