Most manufacturing and production facilities, whether indoor or outdoor, are filled with lights to provide a safe work environment during non-daylight hours. LED lighting has significantly improved energy utilization compared with traditional lighting options.
Lighting has also gotten smarter by becoming network enabled. An Appleton whitepaper, The Next Step in Digital Transformation: Connected LED Lighting in Hazardous Industrial Locations, highlights how this network connectivity helps improve energy performance while maintaining sufficient lighting for safe operations.
The whitepaper opens by highlighting the opportunity:
While it may be common knowledge that LED lighting is up to 65 percent more energy efficient than the traditional HID [high-intensity discharge] or HPS [high-pressure sodium] systems found in the majority of hazardous locations, plant managers may not be aware that connecting LED lighting to the network further reduces costs by as much as another 60 percent due to energy-saving controls, the ability to analyze energy consumption patterns, and the improved visibility into luminaire health monitoring that reduces maintenance requirements and production downtime.
HID lighting has challenges because it is:
…costly to replace, maintain and dispose of, and even more expensive to run since these energy-guzzling devices, which require an extended warmup period to come up to full output, are typically “always on” 24/7/365. To make matters worse, HID cannot be equipped with occupancy and daylight harvesting sensors, or programmed dimming.
HPS lighting:
…impacts the safety of employees, resulting in fatigue and issues with concentration, performance, and motivation. Workers receive about 85 percent of their information through their sense of sight, making lighting critical to the avoidance of slips, trips and falls, for example, that result in over 1 million visits to the ER each year.
Network-enabled or connected lighting:
…refers to a system of luminaires equipped with sensors that are linked to a network, allowing them to transmit and receive data. Connected lighting has been rapidly adopted in commercial buildings where it captures valuable insights into energy usage and enables users to make real-time adjustments to lighting levels for improved efficiency, comfort and safety. Sensors attached to the luminaires can also gather data on occupancy, humidity and temperature. When combined with LED technology, a networked lighting system in a commercial building can typically pay for itself in less than two years due to better space utilization and energy savings.
…refers to a system of luminaires equipped with sensors that are linked to a network, allowing them to transmit and receive data.
Connected lighting has been rapidly adopted in commercial buildings where it captures valuable insights into energy usage and enables users to make real-time adjustments to lighting levels for improved efficiency, comfort and safety. Sensors attached to the luminaires can also gather data on occupancy, humidity and temperature. When combined with LED technology, a networked lighting system in a commercial building can typically pay for itself in less than two years due to better space utilization and energy savings.
Commissioning LED lighting inside Plantweb Insight lets you monitor facility energy usageand detect occupancy, harvest daylight, and schedule for optimal efficiency
Read the whitepaper for more on how the Appleton Mercmaster Connect LED Luminaire rated for Class I, Division 2, and Zone 2 hazardous locations, together with Plantweb Insight analytics, help to deliver improved energy performance, and enhanced personnel safety through occupancy detection, daylight harvesting, and time-based scheduling.
The post Network-Connected LED Lighting for Energy Savings and Safety appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.