The Lighting Control Innovation Award was created in 2011 as part of the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Illumination Awards program, which recognizes professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design. LCA is proud to sponsor the Lighting Control Innovation Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify the effective use of lighting controls in nonresidential applications.
This month, we will explore an innovative installation of lighting controls at LPL Financial’s corporate headquarters in Fort Mill, SC. Design by the Lighting Design Alliance. Photography by Brian Gassel. Lighting controls (smart sensors, energy manager software, room controls) by Enlighted.
Divided into two six-story buildings, the project involved 450,000 square feet of LPL corporate headquarters with fixture-integrated controls and full analytics capabilities. One major achievement was the typical open office spaces where a connected load of 0.4 watts per square foot was attained, before accounting for additional control savings, and while maintaining 35 footcandles. The challenge was to accomplish this at an extreme low cost of $6 per square foot, including all lighting and controls. Daylight and occupancy sensor technology was integrated into each fixture. The project is expected to achieve LEED Gold; lighting controls and LED fixtures played a crucial role in that achievement. One dual-technology daylight and occupancy sensor is integrated into almost each fixture, providing an extreme level of granularity to the buildings as well as having the flexibility of automatically dimming daylight zones. These sensors also allow the control system to provide continuous energy reports and analyses to further aide in energy savings. For example, these reports can analyze how frequently employees use a certain conference room as well as analyze how many people are in the conference room during use. Extreme granularity was especially important in the open office areas, where employees can have the flexibility of raising/lowering screens for daylight control while not affecting the lighting levels of other employee work spaces. To illuminate vertical surfaces, a dual-technology sensor was located at each end of a run instead of each fixture to mitigate budget. Typical 2×2 LED fixtures integrated this dual-technology sensor into the fixture itself for a simple installation solution, further relieving the budget. Overall, through the integration of dual-technology sensors with a sophisticated control system, the project is expected to save at least 25% on energy savings compared to a typical office building that meets the already high standards of Title 24.
Garage lighting uses low-brightness fixtures to minimize glare and incorporates photocells to maximize savings. Elevator lobbies are easily identified with large-scale drum fixtures.
A linear wall grazer with low brightness optics illuminates the lobby brick wall to maximize perceivable texture, and a secondary element of accents illuminates signage.
Linear lights in the lobby are also consistent throughout the project. Additional recessed linear lighting grazes and illuminates reclaimed wood walls.
The dining room uses linear lights integrated into wooden truss elements. Pendants and glowing trim downlights provide a welcoming space, and adjustable accents illuminate art.
Breakout areas provide refuge for informal meetings. Linear slot elements illuminate the wooden trellis screen as well as corkboards and whiteboards.
The precise 2×2 layout is lumen-tuned to 35 footcandles with dimmable task lights providing supplemental illumination. Decorative pendants illuminate lounges in open office spaces.
Linear slots not only provide general lighting but are laid out so that they will also illuminate the movable partitions.
Linear surface-mounted fixtures mimic beams for the wooden columns. Recessed linear lighting illuminates walls and graphics, and recessed accents provided a visual terminus.
Individual meeting “pods” utilize decorative fixtures with local dimmable controls to maximize flexibility.
The private gymnasium uses direct/indirect pendants to match the linear elements of the lighting design that is apparent throughout the buildings.
Leave a Reply