Posted by Jay Boucher
on 01/7/2011
“Throw my switches out the window, throw my relays out there too, throw my time clocks out the door I don’t need any more cause tonight I’ll be staying with my wireless control system. I should have made this move much sooner, but it was more than I dared to do, Oh the features are so strong, and I’ve waited way too long to make the move to wireless controls.”
Thought I was quoting a Bob Dylan song didn’t you? Well if Dylan were to write ‘Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You’ during these times he might just throw in a verse or two like this.
With the emergence of wireless lighting control systems the need for switches, contactors, time clocks etc is a thing of the past. No more banging on an entire factory of lights and leaving them on 24/7 simply because the prevailing controls are so antiquated that it just doesn’t allow for any flexibility or – more importantly- granularity of controls based on occupancy levels, scheduled events, available daylight, personal preferences etc, etc.
How typical is it for a factory that works three shifts to have reduced crews for 2nd shift and even further reduced crews for 3rd shift, yet the entire facility is lit up like it was fully occupied and functioning? The answer is – very common!
To take this one step further, if the business is willing to replace the old 400W metal halide lighting systems that produced light levels of 75fc 15 years ago (with a total load of 455 watts/fixture) with a solid state LED lighting system – or even a multi-ballasted fluorescent lighting system- the savings and ridiculous levels of control are just astounding. Fifteen years into the life cycle of the 400W metal halide fixtures the factory is getting about 25-30fc of light levels while still paying for the connected loads that one day were giving them 75fc of light………………………NOT GOOD!
The reduced occupancy levels of the 2nd and 3rd shifts can be easily dealt with based on scheduled events, occupancy levels or personal preferences without running any pipe and wires. And for those factories that are constantly reconfiguring the layout to squeeze in more machines or to improve product flow- no problem that someone with a laptop can’t fix.
The advantages of wireless lighting controls systems are endless and we’ll be getting more into the different systems that are out on the market. What I see at this point as the one and only drawback today in the world of wireless lighting control systems – the ability of one solution to communicate with another solution. All of these wireless control systems operate over a Zigbee platform, so there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t all be able to communicate with each other. Business owners will hesitate to purchase a wireless control system for their manufacturing spaces if I won’t communicate with a wireless solution for their office spaces for obvious reasons.
So these wireless solution developers need to be cognizant of this very important issue as they move forward with their technologies. This open protocol approach will definitely take control of the wireless arena and the sooner they figure this out and implement this into their solutions the more successful they will be over the long haul.
