Most companies depend on an ON (News - Alert)/OFF switch in their commercial buildings and offices to control lighting with a very small percentage of commercial buildings use intelligent lighting controls. Further, nearly 17.5 percent of all global electricity consumption is represented by lighting.
Companies—in a green effort—can refer to intelligent lighting controls; the lighting system reacts to the actual conditions in a space to provide the required amount of artificial light.
Strong growth in the intelligent lighting controls market has been reported by Pike Research. According to a recent report from the cleantech market intelligence firm, increase in global revenue for lighting controls is on the cards. Under a baseline forecast scenario, global revenue is expected to increase from $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion by 2016. During the same time period, global revenues could reach $3.5 billion under an aggressive growth scenario.
In a release, Clint Wheelock, president, Pike Research (News - Alert) said, "A number of trends are leading to increased adoption of intelligent lighting controls. In addition to the drive to cut energy consumption, there is recognition that lighting control systems can contribute to the pursuit of green building certifications, an interest in increasing the amount of natural light available to occupants, and a desire to provide people with more control over the light levels in their work environments."
According to Wheelock, an increasing number of lighting control systems are networked and centrally controlled. Building energy management systems or BEMS and smart grid applications can then be connected. Options for implementing lighting controls in buildings are also being provided by wireless technologies. These options are provided in buildings where installing wired systems was not practical previously.
Over the next several years, the largest markets for intelligent lighting controls are expected to be the Office and Education buildings. According to Pike Research, Healthcare, Retail, Hotels & Restaurants, and Institutional/Assembly are other significant segments. While 27 percent of lighting control systems is expected to be installed as part of new construction, the remaining 73 percent is expected to be installed as part of a building retrofit.
Eight different lighting control strategies have been described in Pike Research’s report, "Intelligent Lighting Controls for Commercial Buildings." Different options for wireless control and integration with other building systems are also discussed.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Janice McDuffee
