Occupants on one floor of a high-rise office building in New York City were able to reduce lighting energy usage by nearly 80 percent in some areas by using advanced lighting and automated shades, according to scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The dramatic results emerged at a “living laboratory” that was set up to test four sets of technologies on one 40,000-square-foot floor of a building.
Berkeley Lab partnered with the Building Energy Exchange (BEEx), an independent nonprofit, to demonstrate that even in relatively modern office buildings, installing the latest generation of smart, actively controlled, energy-efficient lighting and shading can dramatically lower energy costs and enhance the quality of the work environment. These results will be important in speeding market adoption of emerging energy-saving technologies, says Eleanor Lee, a Berkeley Lab scientist who led the project.
Read more at: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/07/10/shading-and-lighting-retrofits-slash-energy-use-in-new-york-living-lab-office-demonstration/
This Quick Read was submitted by Dan Hounsell, editor-in-chief of Facility Maintenance Decisions, dan.hounsell@tradepressmedia.com. For guidance on saving energy by installing LED lighting, visit https://www.facilitiesnet.com/17213FMD. To read about lighting controls retrofits and energy efficiency, visit https://www.facilitiesnet.com/17167FMD.
