Royal Philips has announced a connected office lighting system that delivers value to facility managers, office workers and building owners. The groundbreaking system uses Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) to connect office lighting fixtures to a building’s IT network. The lighting system acts as an information pathway, enabling workers to control and access other building services via their smartphones, allowing them to enjoy greater visual comfort and productivity.
The office lighting fixtures, when outfitted with sensors, are able to capture anonymous data on room occupancy, temperature and humidity. They connect to the IT network and interface with other building systems such as heating, ventilation and IT services. This benefits the facility manager who has a single system showing real time and historical views of building utilization. For example, he or she could see that on a Friday afternoon a particular floor is not used and adjust the temperature, lighting and cleaning roster accordingly. Having an integrated view of a building?s occupancy patterns and energy usage provides for more informed decision-making with unprecedented levels of energy and operational efficiency.
The Philips system allows office workers to control the lighting in open-plan offices, as well as temperature in meeting rooms, to suit their individual preferences. Their smartphones will detect their location from overhead lighting fixtures via an app.
?The LED lighting alone is 80 percent more efficient than conventional lighting. Personal control of the lighting by employees actually increases efficiency as general lighting levels can be kept lower. ?The potential savings on a building’s operational costs will be significant, given that heating, cooling and lighting together account for 70 percent of a building?s energy usage.
The fixtures, outfitted with wireless communications devices, form a dense indoor positioning grid, like an indoor GPS, that support a range of location-based services, such as wayfinding. Through a smartphone app, the system could also provide workers with useful information such as the nearest empty meeting room.
For building owners, the system offers new value that goes beyond energy efficiency and cost savings. Advanced capabilities, such as indoor positioning combine with the intelligent system to enable comfort, personalization and safety, increasing the total value of a building and making it more attractive to tenants.
Standards-based PoE-enabled fixtures also deliver significant cost savings on lighting installation. As these fixtures receive both data and power over a single Ethernet connection, there is no need for expensive electrical wiring, reducing installation costs by up to 50 percent.