The Bright Side to Energy Conservation
By Design Engineering Staff
Automation Motion Control Energy lightingBeckhoff helps Toronto's Fifth Light Technology deliver intelligent lighting for buildings
The system includes Beckhoff C6920 Industrial PCs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors; a CP6608 Ethernet Control Panel equipped with a 533 MHz Intel IXP420 processor with XScale technology; and TwinCAT PLC software. Fifth Light also utilizes Beckhoff Bus Terminal I/O networked using a variety of Beckhoff BK9000 Ethernet TCP/IP Bus Couplers, KL6811 DALI master terminals for integration of lighting-specific devices and KL6581 EnOcean master terminals for wireless, batteryless building automation devices such as switches and sensors.
“Perhaps the most compelling contribution of the Beckhoff platform has been expediting development time,” Dableh said. “The modular architecture of the Bus Terminal I/O allows Fifth Light to support a wide range of lighting equipment and other devices without having to develop custom hardware in-house. Our team simply has to select the appropriate interface terminal and write the software application to meet a customer’s specific requirements.”
Due to the Ethernet connectivity of the Beckhoff solution, Fifth Light is able to get thousands of data points back to a central location for processing in a very short time. This permits rapid system response to sensors and other user inputs while allowing for centralized processing of all data. “This is critical when trying to centrally manage tens of thousands of sensors and end devices; managing traffic would otherwise become a nightmare,” Dableh noted. “We need to guarantee rapid response times. With the help of Beckhoff real-time Ethernet communication, we get the data we need within 1 millisecond.”
Good for Business
The savings for users of Fifth Light systems with Beckhoff technology are immediately apparent. “Lighting energy savings can be as high as 80 percent in certain buildings that implement our solution,” Dableh estimated. “Even in the most energy-efficient buildings, 30 – 40% savings are possible, no matter the type of light fixtures used, whether they are T8 or T5. Savings are achieved through intelligent control and a dynamic operating profile.” Fifth Light tracks savings through a detailed software-based calculation or with an integrated revenue grade electrical metering system.
