Osram urges companies to adopt the six beams of lighting control

Organisations must adopt the strategy of six beams of lighting control to reduce their carbon footprint by 75 per cent, according to Osram.

The lighting manufacturer has identified the six core areas within lighting applications where businesses, hospitals, public buildings and universities need to focus strategic control to achieve significant cost and carbon savings.

The six beams of lighting control (fig.1) are:

• Time scheduling • Presence detection • Daylight harvesting • Task tuning • Personal control • Load shedding. Fig. 1: Six beams of lighting control (Source: Osram)   To help organisations implement and manage the six beams, Osram is introducing its Encelium lighting control system to the UK.

Encelium centralises control of facility-wide lighting with advanced energy reporting and analysis. Scalable to buildings of any size – and even separate buildings within a campus – Encelium is ideal for facilities managers, building designers and architects working on new builds and refurbishments in commercial buildings, public facilities, higher education and healthcare.

Encelium custom-blends the six beams control strategies to optimise savings and customise lighting performance for each user. For example, the combination of the time scheduling and presence detection beams prevents lights staying on during the entire working day (and even during the night). The task tuning beam limits maximum light output to reduce power consumption by 15-20 per cent.

This beam also offers a dimming buffer to guarantee minimum illumination as set by building regulations and minimise excessive operation of luminaires.

Encelium’s daylight harvesting and personal control strategies fine-tune the lighting levels in any working environment to the available natural light and create a personalised working atmosphere that improves comfort and energy efficiency.

In addition to power savings, Encelium reduces lighting system maintenance costs through automated diagnostics of lamps and ballasts. This includes emergency lighting, which UK businesses must test and log monthly. Encelium automates this process to eliminate manual checks.

Encelium presents an intuitive 3-D visualisation of the lighting installation in the entire facility so users can capture a complete six beams view of the whole installation or isolate specific zones. It provides real-time information on the status of luminaires, detailing faulty devices (even differentiating whether it’s a lamp or ballast failure) and providing accurate information on lamp and ballast life cycles. The software also analyses the lighting installation’s energy consumption and can provide information for the entire facility or isolate a room, floor or even a single ballast or luminaire.

“Osram’s six beams of lighting controls offer a proven strategy for success, particularly when underpinned by technology like Encelium. Toronto General Hospital in Canada has already saved 74 per cent in power in a year by using Encelium, an investment which has paid for itself within four years,” says Osram UK sales manager Simon Huxtable. “We are very excited about the potential for Encelium to support the six beams strategy within UK businesses and institutions and we look forward to helping our customers achieve outstanding cost savings from the controls technology.”

Available now, Encelium can integrate in any external building management system (normally used for HVAC control, security, etc.) using a standard BACnet IP interface.