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Businesses are constantly seeking ways to reduce their environmental impact and lower their operating costs. Lighting, often ranging from 20% to 40% of the total energy bill in commercial and industrial buildings, offers a substantial opportunity for energy savings and cost optimization.
Implementing effective lighting energy monitoring and controls systems is crucial to achieving these goals.
Why you should use an Energy Monitoring and Control system
Energy monitoring systems provide valuable insights into lighting usage patterns, enabling businesses to identify areas for improvement and optimize energy consumption. These systems typically collect real-time data on lighting usage, including energy consumption, occupancy levels, and daylight availability.
By analyzing this data, businesses can pinpoint underutilized lighting zones, identify inefficient lighting fixtures, and optimize lighting schedules based on occupancy patterns.
Lighting energy controls automate the control of lighting fixtures, ensuring that lights are only turned on when needed and dimmed when natural daylight is available. This automation not only reduces energy consumption but also improves occupant comfort by providing adequate lighting levels when required. Common types of lighting energy controls include:
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Daylight harvesting systems: These systems automatically adjust lighting levels based on the availability of natural daylight, reducing the need for artificial lighting.
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Occupancy sensors: These sensors detect occupancy in a given space and turn off lights when no one is present, preventing unnecessary energy consumption.
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Dimmers: These devices allow for precise control of lighting levels, ensuring that lights are only as bright as needed.
The Electrex Energy Monitoring and Energy Automation solutions
The Electrex solutions, in addition to monitoring energy consumption, combine the functionalities of:
- the Energy Automation module (PLC – Ladder language), embedded in the IoT type energy analyzers
- environmental sensors (e.g. lux sensors)
- and the input-output modules (e.g. analog outputs for controlling lighting levels)
in order to monitor and control your lighting system.
Some of the concrete actions, applied since years in commercial and industrial buildings using our solutions, are:
Calendars: The Electrex devices allow the creation of multiple embedded calendars which can be used to schedule automated routines or control the operation of the lighting system. For example the management of holiday periods and extraordinary openings / closings.
Virtual Midnight: The energy analyzers are equipped with a battery-powered perpetual astronomical clock/calendar with daylight saving time management and automatic clock synchronization via NTP. The system calculates the midpoint between the time the lights are turned on (sunset) and the time they are turned off (sunrise) and uses this as a reference point for dimming. For example, if the lights are turned on at 7:00 PM and turned off at 7:00 AM, virtual midnight would be at 12:00 AM.
Shift management: lighting is automatically managed based on the production shifts but still allows for manual period extensions in case of longer shifts.
Interaction with luminosity/ presence sensors: through input / output modules the Electrex solution can integrate third party devices as lighting / presence sensors in order to take accurate decisions and avoid inconveniences for the building tenants.
Customized user interfaces: in addition to the software suite and the cloud platform, where each user can easily design its own SCADA-like mimic diagram, the Electrex IoT type of devices can host in their embedded web servers customized web-page apps that can be accessible from any device (PC, smartphone, tablets, etc.) allowing to monitor and control remotely the lighting system.
Interaction with alarm / security systems: the lighting system can be activated in order to support the alarm systems for e.g. turning on entrance / yard lights.
Operating time (differentiated by operating range): the Electrex devices can detect and log the effective time of use of the lighting systems and so support the maintenance activity.
Lighting fixture failure alarm: the high accuracy of the energy analyzers makes it possible to detect when even just a single light fixture is faulty. The Electex solution can send real-time alarms and notifications when a faulty device is detected.
Power Quality and Harmonic Analysis for predictive maintenance: The effects of Power Quality, especially on LED lighting performance, generally receive little attention prior to installation. Power quality issues such as dips, harmonics, interruptions, can result in expensive, early replacement of damaged or failed lighting equipment.
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About us
Since 1993 Electrex designs, develops, manufactures and markets, Made in Italy, instruments and software for energy management and control.
The Electrex solutions are used in the Energy Efficiency and Energy Automation applications, for the industrial, commercial, public, civil, and renewable energy sectors allowing a rapid return on investment.
The solutions provided up to now allow the management of over 505,000 measuring points and more than 910,000 points are controlled via Energy Automation applications.
Electrex, one of the first companies to operate in these sectors, has acquired over the years a considerable experience and competence that few other companies can claim to have. With over 40% of the staff dedicated to R & D, we demonstrate our strong commitment to innovation and continuous improvement in order to anticipate the needs of our customers.