Smart lamps and luminaires combine technology breakthroughs in wireless communications and LEDs.Some of the smart features are:
• Colour tuning, dimming, on/off and gradually changing/adjusting the lighting over time
• Connectivity for activation of services, security monitoring and data delivery
• Monitoring of energy consumption or customer visits/movements plus data storage
• Signal boosting/extension
• Built-in presence detector that is linked with the building automation system to control the lighting and the ventilation
• Built-in thermocouples that are linked to the building automation system to control the HVAC system (no impact on lighting)
• Maintain constant luminous flux and operation that ensure the rated lifetime holds
Wireless features imply that smart bulb and luminaires consume energy whenever the mains power is switched on, even when they are not providing lighting but waiting for an instruction from a control device. Many systems also require a separate energy-consuming gateway
device for translating the communication signal between the control device and the lamps/luminaires.
It is very important to request information concerning:
1 Standby consumption for the wireless control as well as for wired control. The first indicative measurements for wireless controlled domestic products
[10] did show very large variation in the standby power for different products and this might very well also be the case for smart lighting products and systems for the tertiary sector.
2 Information regarding the power supply of all driver components in the standby mode. In that event that the whole driver is always switched on,
this has a great influence on the lifetime, e. g. with a 30000 h lifetime, the driver would have to be replaced before 3.5 years.
3 For commercial buildings, many of the present systems rely on proprietary hardware and software and different protocols are typically used in the building automation systems. It is therefore important to acknowledge that if an open protocol is used in the communication of the smart lighting system (including smart lamps, gateways, luminaires, controls, meters and management systems) and if the system is
interoperable with other products/systems. Lack of interoperability between different manufacturers’ smart lighting products is an issue and poses a great challenge.
Efforts to bring more standardisation and interoperability to the market are underway. Manufacturer alliances are formed for several protocols but with each only dealing with use of their own protocol for what is a smart bulb.