Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. has raised the bar with the GRAFIK 7000 centralized lighting control system, a powerful new tool that brings unprecedented integration, control and energy management advantages to any size project.
Designed for optimal scalability, GRAFIK 7000 is a first-of-its kind central control system that allows today’s best-available lighting automation technologies to be easily customized. It offers advanced hardware capabilities and customizable user interfaces for flexible and seamless integration of dimming, switching, window shading systems and daylighting. It also streamlines building operations with simple, yet comprehensive energy monitoring and management features plus convenient integration with building automation systems.
“GRAFIK 7000 represents the next generation in integrated, whole-building lighting control systems,” said Ian Rowbottom, principal application engineer at Lutron. “It delivers the power and potential of today’s most sophisticated and comprehensive lighting control technologies in a much more streamlined and user-friendly manner, so that the best solution can be specified for any application.”
GRAFIK 7000 features innovative floor-plan-based software and a Graphic User Interface (GUI) that provide central, local and personal control options with customizable access privileges. Users can monitor and operate lighting and related systems from any desktop computer with internet access.
For example, a facility manager could log onto his home computer to check and adjust security lighting. Similarly, an office employee could adjust overhead fluorescent light levels from his or her computer.
Additionally, GRAFIK 7000 can meter and monitor lighting system energy usage and peak demand, allowing facilities teams to minimize energy charges. In addition, with the use of LON and BacNet software, GRAFIK 7000 can easily share information with other building automation technologies to create one comprehensive operational system. Its inherent flexibility allows GRAFIK 7000 to meet the control requirements of any project—up to 16,000 lighting zones, 6,000 wallstations and 2,000 power panels. It can also accommodate up to 32 linked processors.
Rowbottom offered three real-life scenarios illustrating how GRAFIK 7000 can accommodate various applications:
Stadiums
“The flexible user interface software can be tailored to let users select lighting for each part of an event,” Rowbottom said. “Integrating GRAFIK 7000 with Lutron’s dimming and switching panels and electronically driven shades and draperies provides simple control of the facility’s entire lighting scheme: from dimming and shade control in high-end retail and luxury box areas, to switching in corridors, parking lots and even control of field lighting.
Convention Centers
“GRAFIK 7000’s capacity for expansion would allow combined control of multiple areas or even multiple buildings in one centralized system,” Rowbottom said. “A building manager could monitor and manage energy usage, lamp power and operating hours and then plan maintenance activities based on this information. The system would also allow lighting to be very easily reconfigured to accommodate different activities.
Adding Lutron’s Sivoia QED (Quiet Electronic Drive) shading system would maximize automated daylight harvesting and control.”
Open Office
“GRAFIK 7000 automatically makes lighting more configurable and adaptable for changes in space usage,” Rowbottom said. “Daylighting and harvesting can be integrated and building managers can benefit from peak demand, load shedding and power usage/monitoring features. Installing either Lutron’s Eco-10 electronic fluorescent dimming ballasts, EcoSystem™ fluorescent lighting control solutions or Hi-lume® 1% fluorescent dimming ballasts gives employees the ability to adjust overhead lighting from their computers to best suit their individual needs, but still be integrated into the central system for energy management purposes. GRAFIK 7000 could also be configured with building security systems for increased fire and life safety.”
Obviously unique in its versatility, Rowbottom said the biggest benefit of GRAFIK 7000 is the impact it can have on a facility’s bottom line.
“Scalability and flexibility are definitely the hallmarks of GRAFIK 7000,” Rowbottom said. “But the effect it can have on energy efficiency can’t be understated. It creates a number of different ways to manage energy consumption: from having some lights on at lower levels at appropriate times and making sure others are off altogether when they’re not needed, to playing a significant role in load shedding.”
For more information about Lutron Electronics, visit www.lutron.com.
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