It’s no surprise that LED lighting has made a significant impact on the energy use for lighting applications with it’s extremely low energy use per footcandle. New ground is being broken in all lighting uses and we are seeing LED lighting in everything from decorative lighting to task lighting. I recently toured the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s campus and noticed their use of sensor controlled LED site lighting.
Not only is the lighting itself provided by an LED array, but the control of the light uses both a photosensor to ensure that it doesn’t come on during daylight hours, and also an occupant sensor so that the site is only lit when it is occupied. This not only provides benefits of low electrical usage for the lighting, but also less light pollution at night as the lights only come on when they are necessary for users of the campus.
These ideas have been a long time coming, and it’s also great to see such fresh and innovative designs for the fixtures themselves. The ability to save on site lighting loads is incredible, and further helps achieve LEED points on sites that are otherwise driven by their exterior site lighting requirements.
