Why you should invest in an
ECS Lighting Management System

Commercial lighting is a large part of the energy usage of a building. However, lighting is also an area that gives fast payback when dollars are spent on conservation. Today, ECS Controls can provide a variety of new lighting technologies to save energy and improve lighting quality for building owners.

Lighting accounts for 25% to 50% of the electrical operating cost in commercial buildings. Yet, the average commercial building is unoccupied approximately 75% of the time. Often we see buildings with lights left on unnecessarily during the unoccupied time because of inadequate controls. And during the occupied time, the lighting levels in many buildings are much higher then required by the occupants for the work they perform. Also, the heat that lights produce may be beneficial in the heating season but are a big burden on the air conditioning system during the cooling season.

The lighting in today's commercial buildings needs to be controlled as a system and ECS Controls has more options today than ever before when it comes to making decisions about the integration of building lighting systems with building automation systems. We can assist building owners in designing lighting control programs which effectively operate the lighting system in their building by means of manual and automatic controls.

Today's commercial building owners and their occupants need more flexible lighting controls then in the past. As workspace usage changes so do an individual's lighting preferences. Improved energy efficiency and reduced maintenance cost are certainly tangible benefits in a lighting management system. However, the intangible benefits such as occupant satisfaction, morale, productivity, motivation and retention are more difficult to measure. In spite of this, many companies today are considering occupants with controllable lighting not only saved energy but showed significant improvement in their satisfaction and motivation. They also considered their task less difficult with dimmable lighting.

It is therefore critical that an optimum working environment is provided and that occupants are protected against any negative environment factors, which may have an effect on their productivity.

With this in mind, ECS Controls strives to maintain a lighting level that delivers exactly the right amount of light for occupants, with minimum energy use. With energy conservation means such as electronic digital ballasts, occupancy sensors, photo-electric devices, daylight harvesting, dimming ballasts, multi-step dimming, scheduling and load shedding, our lighting team can make saving lighting energy easy and add significant savings on your electric bill.

--- We'll leave the lights "OFF" for you! ---

ECS Controls will integrate all aspects of lighting control including:

  • Web-based Connectivity
  • BACnet Interoperability
  • DALI Diagnostic and Control Features
  • Daylight Harvesting
  • Personal Desktop Lighting Control
  • Load Shedding
  • Low-Voltage Switching
  • Architectural Dimming
  • Occupancy Sensing
  • Passive Infrared (PIR) Technology
  • Ultrasonic ( US ) Technology
  • Dual PIR and US Technology
  • Light Sweeping Interface
  • Pager Lighting Control

Web-based Connectivity
The Internet protocol is emerging as the most important way of controlling lighting from anywhere and anytime. Our Dashboard Access can provide a fully functional interface to the lighting management system via a web-host and browser.

BACnet Interoperability
Our BACnet-compliant lighting management system can easily solve a problem that requires interoperability. However, if a DALI lighting network is required, it can be integrated with our BACnet Building Automation System (BAS) using a gateway.

DALI Diagnostic and Control Features
ECS Controls offers three things to a lighting system that had been previously unavailable: intelligence, flexibility and two-way communication. Because the DALI electronic digital ballast now contains software, it becomes a "smart" device. The intelligence built into the ballast allows the flexibility and communication to occur. The flexibility allows for fixture relocation and grouping changes without having to rewire circuits. The two-way communication allows the reporting lamp and ballast feature information.

Daylight Harvesting
With digital control of fluorescent lighting fixtures, work spaces can provide the capability to dim individual fixtures in response to changes in ambient lighting. The "light harvesting" simply means making use of daylight and deducing electric light intensity in the building which results in substantial energy savings. This procedure can operate concurrently with occupancy sensors in an integrated lighting control system to further increase energy savings.

Personal Desktop Control
Personal control of lighting not only saves energy, but can result in significant improvement in employee satisfaction, motivation and well-being. By enabling desktop lighting control, users can set and adjust their lighting preferences as they work on their personal computer (PC). Studies have shown that employees that have access to personal lighting controls alter their personal work environment by adjusting the lighting two-thirds more frequently when desktop controls were available. Employees prefer manual lighting control to automatic lighting control because the manual controls allow them to tailor local lighting to their needs. Web based PC software applications can also communicate with DALI digital ballasts to further optimize the satisfaction and performance of office workers. This type system not only allows individual occupant control of assigned fixtures through their PC but can also provide energy consumption calculations and report lamp and ballast failures.

Load Shedding
Another important application of the new lighting control technology would come during periods of peak electrical demand. Work spaces can automatically eliminate 50 percent or more of the lighting load during peak times, without compromising health and safety.

Low-Voltage Switching
ECS Controls can offer the choice of Manual-On or Automatic-On Mode. Manual-On Mode maximizes savings by avoiding unnecessary lighting in offices with adequate daylight or for brief periods of occupancy. Automatic-On Mode provides maximum convenience. In either mode, lights can be turned on or off manually.

Architectural Dimming
Dimming is often considered to be better design practice in terms of occupant perception. Manual dimming gives the occupant the capability of dimming the lights in an area. Automatic stepped dimming can be based on time-of-day schedule or on sensed quantity of daylight. Continuous dimming follows the daylight pattern very closely. Continuous dimming also responds to changes in light output due to dirt depreciation on fixtures and lamp lumen depreciation due to lamp aging. Lighting systems are generally over designed to compensate for these light loss factors. By maintaining a constant light level, dimming can compensate for this over design and increase energy savings. Continuous dimming provides the highest degree of flexibility, particularly for spaces where daylight levels are variable during the day. ECS Controls will assist your staff in planning a lighting control system to integrate with a day lighting strategy.

Occupancy Sensing
Occupancy sensing ensures that lights are not turned off inadvertently. It adapts fully to the occupant's behavior and there is no complicated technology to learn.

Passive Infrared (PIR) Technology
Passive infrared sensors detect the changes in temperature that are created when a person moves within view of the sensor. They read the difference between the heat emitted by a human body and the temperature of the background space. When a person moves into or out of the field of view the sensor detects motion. Passive infrared sensors must have a clear view of the area to be controlled.

Ultrasonic ( US ) Technology
Ultrasonic sensors emit a low intensity, inaudible sound into the area being monitored. Motion is detected when movement in the coverage causes a Doppler shift in the reflected sound waves. Ultrasonic sensors have a volumetric coverage pattern. There are no gaps in coverage. Ultrasonic sensors do not respond to audible sound and can be designed to provide large coverage.

Dual PIR and US Technology
Dual technology sensors combine Passive Infrared (PIR) and Ultrasonic (US) technologies into one sensor. Dual technology minimizes false triggering in difficult applications and areas with heavy airflow. Lights stay on if either technology detects occupancy.

Light Sweeping Interface
A Light Sweeping Interface prevents unnecessary "light on" following power sweeps in facilities. Often we see lights on in a facility after hours where occupants forgot to turn them off. Using a light sweeping feature at midnight would insure lights are off until next occupancy.

Pager Lighting Control
Pager Lighting Control is an alternative to time clock and photocells. This type of system uses a satellite pager network to broadcast instructions to a Remote Communication Unit (RCU) mounted at the lights. The RCU contains a processor to control the lights, a built-in clock with battery backup and a pager receiver that gets information from the satellite network four times per day. Each transmission burst includes the exact time for resetting RCU clock, the day's sunset and sunrise times and any received modifications to the local programming instructions.

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