This feature article for ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING, written by Craig DiLouie, LC, lighting journalist and acting education director for the Lighting Controls Association, explores the trend toward integration between lighting controls and luminaires. The article begins: “Lighting controls have always been an essential component of a lighting system, as they enable basic functionality: turning lights on […]
Delta Controls Unveils DHMI-7E Touch Screen Interface
The DHMI is a 7-inch diagonal, high resolution, wide-screen format, color LCD used for interfacing with the Delta Controls building Automation System. The Delta DHMI uses BACnet over Ethernet to communicate with controllers on a local area network. User created graphics allow the DHMI to be completely customized for a given application.
Niagara AX Driver Enhances Integration of Lighting with HVAC and Building Systems to Conserve Energy and Lower Operating Costs
In a solution made for these challenging economic times, Encelium Technologies has announced that building owners and management can expect lower operating costs and a better return on investment through technology that enables the integration of the company’s Energy Control System (ECS) with Tridium’s Niagara AX building automation software platform. The dramatically improved integration of HVAC and other embedded devices with lighting is made possible by the Niagara AX Driver, according to Tony Marano, President and CEO of Encelium.
Integrating Lighting and Building Control
Building automation systems (BAS) provide automatic control of electrical loads, such as HVAC, lighting and electric motors, and functions not related to energy management, such as security and fire safety systems. Energy management systems (EMS) provide automatic control of electrical loads to manage energy consumption either as a stand-alone system or as part of a BAS. While EMS may be capable of provide automatic switching of large blocks of lighting loads, only a fraction of installed EMS actually control lighting, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (2003). EMS that control HVAC are installed in about 5.6% of commercial buildings representing 24% of commercial floorspace—most commonly >100,000 sq.ft. office and education buildings—while EMS that control lighting are installed in 1.3% of buildings covering 7.4% of floorspace.
University of Toronto, Multimedia Classroom
The University of Toronto’s new “electronic classroom” combines familiar audiovisual equipment, such as slide projectors and VCRs, with such sophisticated equipment as a multi-sync data/video projection system and multi-scene preset dimming controls. Instructors can now electronically enhance their lectures with an integrated user-friendly presentation system.