Adaptive envelope systems, such as smart window and skylight systems, can potentially deliver significant energy savings and reduce peak demand when used in California’s retail and agricultural buildings. These systems automatically adapt to environmental conditions such as occupancy, daylight levels and HVAC status.
Current Title 24 Building code requirements call for use of high-efficacy lighting in a limited number of residential space types. Builders are allowed to install low efficacy lighting if they also install dimming controls. However, significant load reduction and energy savings over current code-compliant designs can be achieved through the use of All High-Efficacy (AHE) lighting design practices.
The retail sector, which represents 13 percent of California’s lighting electricity use, has historically not embraced the use of lighting controls to save energy. California regulators have responded to retailer’s concerns that lighting controls and lighting power density restrictions may have a negative impact on sales and customers. Currently, building lighting energy-efficiency standards for the retail sector are less stringent than regulations imposed on other commercial space types.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company— California K-12 school districts are in the process of updating and retrofitting the mechanical and engineering systems in their schools, primarily through the implementation of Proposition 39. Improving the efficiency of school lighting is a priority in the effort to increase the energy efficiency of school facilities, due to its relative simplicity in comparison to retrofitting complex mechanical systems.
Linear fluorescent lamps account for 83 percent of installed lamps in the California commercial sector per a lighting market characterization performed in 2014. LED lighting products are receiving attention for their potential to replace fluorescent lighting, reduce energy use and improve lighting quality in a variety of indoor commercial applications, including offices, classrooms and retail stores. LED alternatives to linear fluorescent lighting products fall into three main categories: linear retrofit lamp solutions, linear retrofits for troffers and dedicated luminaires.
As light emitting diode (LED) MR16 lamps become more prevalent in the commercial market, both residential and commercial end‐users are considering these lamps as replacements for currently installed halogen incandescent MR16 sources. While the energy savings associated with LED lamp replacements is evident, the compatibility of LED MR16 lamps with existing electrical hardware is not. In one‐to‐one lamp retrofits, MR16 LED lamps often demonstrate negative performance characteristics such as visible flicker and audible humming.
Due to the increased availability and cost-effectiveness of LED multifaceted reflector (MR) lamps, residential and commercial users are looking to these products for an energy-efficient alternative to traditional, halogen MR sources.
Philips Lighting University
Presented by Konstantinos Papamichael, Ph.D.
In today’s world, people spend much of their time indoors. Be it at home or at work, out shopping or in a restaurant – the light that surrounds us affects our mood and every aspect of our daily experience. In interior spaces, the lighting has to be flexible and highly customizable to accommodate for changes in the time of day, the seasons and on-site activities.
