Leveraging Energy-Efficiency and Demand-Reduction Opportunities of Laboratory and Health Care Facilities Through the Implementation of Total Lighting Control and Integration with Building Management Systems (BMS)
Tim Kehrli, Lutron Electronics Co.
Building management systems (BMS) control HVAC aspects of commercial buildings and health care facilities around the world. According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA), this control covers only 33 to 38 percent of the electrical energy use and 38 percent of the total energy use in these facilities. Lighting energy use in these same studies represents 38 and 20 percent of additional energy use respectively.
By not integrating lighting energy use into a BMS, building operators are missing the ability to see, and hence manage, a load that represents almost 40 percent of their electrical energy use and 20 percent of their total facility energy use. Based on existing technology, this disconnect has severely limited an opportunity to make significant reductions in energy use in these buildings.
According to the same EIA study, more than 80 percent of the lighting loads in the aforementioned facilities are made up of fluorescent fixtures. Technology is available today to control the light output from these fixtures to match the needed illumination in any space. Through a combination of tuning, dimming, daylighting, and occupancy control, the energy loads can be reduced in excess of 60 percent and the resulting information can be passed along through the BMS to more accurately manage HVAC energy loads and deliver additional energy use reductions.
Additionally, and more important in critical laboratory and healthcare facilities, these energy reduction technologies can be done is such a way as to protect mission/safety critical operations while still delivering energy savings and opportunities for demand reduction responsive capabilities. By enabling appropriate demand reduction strategies, these facilities may be able to generate incentive income from utility providers on average of $70 per year for each kilowatt of demand that is reduced when a signal from the utility is received.
This presentation will show how these lighting technologies can be implemented and how the information can be passed to the BMS, which will result in total energy savings in excess of 20 percent and electrical energy savings exceeding 30 percent, as well as providing opportunities for demand reduction incentives.