CLTC research, demonstrations and case studies have shown adaptive corridor and stairwell lighting systems are a cost-effective strategy for achieving lighting energy savings of 40–50%. This is because many stairwells and corridors are illuminated continuously, despite low occupancy rates, and are usually equipped with standard, non-dimmable ballasts and operated with wall switches or from a panel box.
In early summer 2011, Capitol Park Plaza in Washington, DC, began the initial stages of a major lighting overhaul at its parking garage for apartment tenants. By working directly with research partners and testing facilities, such as CLTC at UC Davis, EverLast Lighting has been able to bring an innovative lighting solution to the market.
Beyond the energy and cost savings, new types of lighting are now envisioned as ways to heal, soothe, invigorate or protect people.
Wall packs offer an effective means of illuminating building perimeters, bolstering security and aiding wayfinding, but many are limited in terms of their efficiency, with minimal or nonexistent cutoff. Moreover, because wall packs typically operate in areas with low occupancy rates, they often waste energy fully illuminating vacant spaces for hours at a time every night.
In 2012, UC Davis upgraded its exterior lighting as part of the university’s Smart Lighting Initiative. Wall packs on campus, like other exterior lighting fixtures, were retrofitted with dimmable LED sources, motion sensors, and wireless controls. This allowed the units to be incorporated into an adaptive campuswide lighting control system. The system offers an intelligent, networked approach to lighting and energy management, with improved lighting quality and optimal energy efficiency.
This document provides overviews of exterior lighting technologies that would best be integrated into national parks as retrofits or new designs, as well as tips for evaluating light sources, performing a lighting audit, and pairing lamps with lighting controls. The key issues to consider when performing a retrofit or new lighting design are energy, cost, and maintenance savings, and this guide is intended to help make these decisions easier.
This study focuses on controls systems designed for street and parking lot lighting applications. These systems provide tools to manage and monitor city-wide streetlight assets remotely, including the potential to meter actual street lighting energy use. Networked controls that offer dimming capability can also provide energy savings through adaptive street lighting management, the practice of reducing lighting power and output as conditions change over time.
The objective of the Smart Corridor project is to quantify the potential energy savings in corridor lighting by implementing bi-level lighting technologies in commercial spaces such as office, hospitality, and educational buildings while also evaluating the market potential for the bi-level lighting strategy. The energy savings data gathered from this project is crucial to the large-scale implementation of bi-level strategies, as it will support the inclusion of bi-level lighting practices for secondary spaces in utility incentive programs and, eventually, building code language.
This demonstration project consists of a one-to-one retrofit of existing fluorescent luminaires with either new fixtures or new components for three corridor areas in Bainer Hall. This project is intended to demonstrate the energy savings that can be achieved by using occupancy-based controls for interior corridor applications.
To address California’s critical need for targeted, practical technology improvements that reduce lighting energy use and advance building energy-efficiency, in 2009, the California Energy Commission initiated a comprehensive lighting research, development, demonstration and outreach program in partnership with the California Lighting Technology Center.
