Lighting Controls: Saving Money & Energy
As you probably already know, LED lighting offers the best lumen per watt efficiency out of any other lighting technology. Lighting controls can help you significantly preserve the life of your lighting as well as automatically turn off your lights when not in use. These lighting controls work with all types of technology. So if you are not ready to invest money in LED lighting, there are additional things you can consider to save money without heavy costs involved.
Types Of Lighting Controls
Dimmer Switches
Dimmers reduce power to the light bulb so they save energy and can extend life. Incandescent and halogen lights benefit most from dimmers by running them below the full voltage setting. Using a dimmer on these 2 types of bulbs can extend life by 15 – 20 times depending on the settings they are most commonly set at. Fluorescent bulbs are uncommonly dimmable. Therefore don’t have the ability to lower lumen output.
Realistically, LEDs will last so long that you would only install a dimmer for the sole purpose to reduce the amount of light and not help preserve the life of the LED. For a LED to be considered expired, it has to fail to maintain 70% of lumen output from the factory. So in addition to their already long life, LEDs can still create sufficient light with less than 70% of there normal light output or lumen output. There is a strong chance that your LEDs will outlast any modern updates you make, or the occupancy of the home at 20+ years.
Occupancy Sensors
Occupancy sensors detect movement to determine if the room or space that the sensor is located has occupancy and then in turn keeps the lights on, or turns them off. After a certain amount of time without any activity detected, the sensor shuts the lights off. The location of the sensors must be carefully placed as to not have the lights shut off while there is still occupancy. The delay in which the lights get shut off is often selected by default at 15 minutes.
Photocells
Photocells dynamically adjust lighting in a given area based on a sensor that contain resistors that are light sensitive. This allows for a dynamic adjustment of light levels. Photocells are great in applications such as home security, night lights, parking lot lighting, and any other type of outdoor lighting. As we already learned, turning down the light level can save you energy and the life of the lamp. These awesome sensors make timers obsolete in giving you a custom lighting ambiance in your home or office.
