The Bright Side to Energy Conservation

Approximately 15 percent of all electricity generated in North America is consumed by the indoor lighting systems of commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. Fifth Light Technology Ltd., based in Oakville, Ontario, has demonstrated that effective lighting management can save a significant portion of this energy while yielding an attractive return on investment (ROI).

Maple Leaf Square, an office high risedevelopment in downtown Toronto, is fully fitted with a Fifth Light web-based lighting control system with Beckhoff technology.

Fifth Light offers a variety of energy saving lighting devices and a complete control system. The product offering is compliant with the open lighting communication protocol known as the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) and includes a line of dimmable ballasts, relays and a suite of web-based software applications.

Fifth Light employs advanced energy savings strategies such as photo sensorbased daylight harvesting, user-based scheduling, ballast factor tuning and motion sensor based occupancy detection. Fifth Light has pioneered several facility management features including automatic tube fault detection and e-mail dispatch, multibuilding consolidation and intelligent software integration with the file format used by architects and engineers to design buildings (DXF).

Easy Being Green
Using web devices such as a Cisco VOIP telephone, BlackBerry or an iPhone, Fifth Light provides simultaneous access to thousands of users so they can easily adjust light levels anywhere an Internet connection is available.

“It’s never been easier or more convenient to save energy and improve lighting quality. Lighting technology has finally met Internet technology,” said Ray Dableh, Fifth Light’s director of research and development. To help facilitate this connected lighting automation system, Fifth Light utilizes hardware from Beckhoff Automation.

“We wanted to standardize the design of our lighting control panels on a reliable control platform that supports a variety of I/O systems and Beckhoff Automation proved to be the ideal supplier,” Dableh adds. “We have been using Beckhoff in the field for more than three years in approximately 30 major installations across North America.”