light right project
This project consists of the installation and monitoring of the Square D® Clipsal® Light Level Sensor in selected rooms of the Smart Home that have large windows allowing sunlight to illuminate the room during the daytime. This device will measure the amount of ambient light in the room due to the sun at any given time of the day and will adjust the brightness of artificial lighting in the room to maintain a constant light throughput at all times. At night, the light control system will run artificial lighting at full capacity; during the day when there is already much sunlight in the room, artificial lights will be dimmed. A mechanism to adjust the brightness of the lights and override the light control system to provide full (or no) artificial lighting will also be installed. This is consistent with the objectives of Smarter Living since it provides a mechanism to illuminate rooms by using up less energy. Energy is channeled efficiently according to the specific lighting demands of a room at a given point in time. Energy is conserved if artificial lights are dimmed at certain times while functionality (a lighted room) is unaffected. The device will be compatible with the house because there is a Clipsal® light system already installed in the house. The second phase of this project is to monitor the amount of energy that is being saved using each one of these sensors and light control systems, and to decide whether or not such a device is economically sustainable.