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Lighting based on LonWorks technologies.
Considering a modern city or building from the point of view of engineering systems, we can note the widespread onset of their «intellectualization», which extends not only to «smart» buildings, but also goes far beyond them, including city streets.
Here we mean «intelligent» outdoor lighting systems, including architectural lighting of buildings, landscape lamps, regular street lamps and highway lamps.
Properly organized outdoor lighting shapes the appearance of the city, creates the necessary conditions for the development of tourism and cultural activities, increases business activity of the population in the evening hours and ensures the necessary level of safety for residents and road traffic.
City lighting in LonWorks format
Thus, in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, the second largest city after Stockholm, a highly efficient transport concept was recently implemented, on the basis of which a system of «intelligent» outdoor lighting was introduced.
The designers were faced with the task of improving road safety and ensuring the scalability of the system in accordance with the needs of the growing transport network.
After numerous tests conducted by engineers, Echelon Corporation's LonWorks technology was chosen to create automated outdoor lighting, where a regular power line can be used as a network medium.
In practice, this system works as follows: when the traffic intensity changes, the Echelon automation changes the brightness of city and street lights, taking into account the time of day, the position of the sun and the brightness of other light sources.
Thanks to the new system, the overall energy savings amounted to 74%, and the average service life of lighting lamps doubled.
Another city where intelligent outdoor lighting has been implemented and successfully used is Ville de Québec (Canada), where this system was installed in October 2007.
The use of Echelon's i.LON family of servers in this system has made it possible to reduce energy consumption during peak hours: at this time, decorative lighting is turned off and street lights that are not related to pedestrian and road safety are dimmed or switched off.
This solution is most effective in winter, when low temperatures and short daylight hours mean energy consumption reaches its maximum.
Proper lighting is the key to safety on the road.
As an example of the use of LON technologies in road lighting systems, we can cite the installation of «smart lights» on a 23-kilometer section of the A16 highway in the Netherlands.
This project is distinguished by a large volume of controlled lamps — 1,500 units — and a combination of fiber optic and wired technologies for transmitting data from network equipment.
Another feature of the project is the equipping and automation of the traffic control center, which constantly monitors compliance with traffic rules by motorists, monitors the intensity of natural light, weather conditions and other data, on the basis of which it regulates lighting and ensures safety on the road.
The motto is economic efficiency.
The Echelon automated lighting control system allows not only to reduce energy costs for outdoor lighting by two or more times, but also to reduce operating costs by 40%, since most faults are recognized and eliminated automatically.
Also, thanks to the automatic receipt of information in the control room, there is no need for the services of work teams for regular inspection of street lighting lamps in order to find and replace failed lamps.
As a result, the downtime of lamps is reduced by 75%, and the service life of electric lamps is extended by approximately 50% due to their rational use.
Caring for the environment is not in words, but in numbers.
By reducing energy costs, automated outdoor lighting also helps reduce the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere that accompany electricity production.
For example, a report by the American association ACCE Ford Fellow for the Greater Washington area predicts that the transition of the region to intelligent street lighting will reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 77,746 tons per year, which is equivalent to removing 14,239 passenger cars from the road or reducing gasoline combustion by 2,334,580 liters.
At the same time, the energy consumption of outdoor lighting fixtures will be reduced by 50%, or 100 million kWh annually, which will amount to monetary savings of 6 million US dollars.
Three components of the «intelligent» outdoor lighting system.
The main components of the outdoor lighting system based on LonWorks technology are intelligent ballast resistors with data transmission via power line wires to the i.LON family of Internet servers and specialized software for data processing and storage.
In addition, Echelon specialists recommend using high-pressure sodium discharge lamps in street lighting lamps, which are more economical than the mercury lamps used previously and now.
Part 1. «Intelligence» built into lamps.
Thus, to modernize existing urban lighting systems, all luminaires must be equipped with modern electronic ballasts that provide the necessary starting and operating power supply mode for gas-discharge lamps and exchange data with network segment controllers.
Here we can note the following advantages of electronic ballast resistors over traditional ballasts:
— instant lamp start;
— no lamp flickering when switched on and during operation;
— no noise inherent in electromagnetic ballasts;
— more economical energy consumption;
— increased lamp luminous efficiency;
— longer lamp life;
— light weight;
— electronic ballasts can control the brightness of the lamps (dim lighting).
An example is the electronic ballasts of the Irish company Selc, which stabilize fluctuations in line voltage within the range from 180 to 260 V, increasing the input power factor to 0.995 and providing the ability to dim the lamp to 35% of the standard power.
In addition, when using these ballasts in lamps, the stroboscopic effect disappears, and the presence of a LonWorks network card provides remote control and notification of the operating service about the current state of the lamp and its operating time.
Part 2. i.LON servers with data exchange via the power line.
As already mentioned, the i.LON family of Internet servers (manufactured by Echelon), such as i.LON SmartServer, act as segment controllers in this solution.
This internet server can use PL-20 power line as a network medium for communication with LON devices, and when used with Selc electronic ballasts, it can reduce street lighting electricity costs by 30%.
Since the power line network environment is characterized by high levels of interference, the i.LON SmartServer has a special command repeat function.
Like other servers in the i.LON family, the SmartServer is equipped with an astronomical clock, which allows it to determine the level of natural street lighting from sunlight or moonlight and adjust the intensity of artificial lighting accordingly.
In addition, the Echelon solution regulates outdoor lighting based on information from i.LON about traffic density and weather conditions (measured by appropriate sensors).
It is possible to automatically send control signals via servers to both individual street lights and the entire system.
Part 3. Software for system control and data collection.
The next component of the solution under consideration for outdoor lighting systems is specialized software for collecting and processing data, in particular, the Streetlight.Vision program, created by the French company of the same name.
This software includes a set of 6 Web applications (Web Portal) and a module for collecting information and filling the database (Data Collect).
In this case, information exchange with i.LON SmartServer is performed over the Internet via secure GPRS/ADSL channels.
Using this software, the operator of the street lighting system can not only analyze consumption and identify current faults, but also remotely control each lamp or their groups.
Advantages and capabilities of «smart» lighting.
To summarize the above, we can highlight the following advantages that an intelligent lighting control system provides compared to traditional solutions:
— significant reduction in energy consumption;
— increased safety for pedestrians and drivers;
— reduced harmful emissions and improved environmental conditions;
— increased service life of lamps;
— reduced costs for maintenance and operation of street lighting systems;
— improved quality of system maintenance;
— providing consumers with a wider and more flexible range of services;
— giving city streets a more attractive appearance.
The introduction of «intelligent» technologies into city lighting systems, as well as the participation of professional architects and lighting technicians in the creation of these systems, will not only effectively organize outdoor lighting, but also preserve the holistic image of buildings at night, emphasize architectural elements with the help of lighting and advantageously shade the artistic features and individuality of ancient and modern buildings.