Lightnews Vol 13.pdf - Philips Lighting Controls

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Light in actionEntrance to the Fort Irwin trainingbase in the Mojave Desert.Green DefenceEarly results of a lighting management projectat a busy US military training base in the MojaveDesert indicate that Philips Dynalite systemshave the potential to reduce the Department ofDefence’s energy bill by a third.The United States Departmentof Defence (DoD) is one of the largestconsumers of energy in the US andtherefore the world. The broad range ofactivities undertaken by the military andits support operations, use large quantitiesof different energy types in a varietyof ways. In 1995, the DoD establishedthe Environmental Security TechnologyCertification Program (ESTCP) which isdesigned to support the development ofinnovative technologies and promote theirtransfer to a wider commercial market byadopting them for use in federal governmentoffices and other facilities.Operated in conjunction with theDepartment of Energy, each year ESTCPrequests industry to submit projects forevaluation. Projects run under ESTCP,demonstrate systems in operational settingsat military facilities in order to documentand validate improved performance andcost savings. According to Philips ControlsMarketing Manager, Mike Skurla, it is oftendifficult to convince large corporationsor government departments about theeffectiveness of new equipment and systems.“The ESTCP demonstration projects collectcost and performance data in a controlledsituation in order to overcome concernsregarding technical or programmatic risk,”Skurla added.When Philips Controls submitted anapplication, the Army’s Fort Irwin wasnominated as the site to conduct threedemonstration projects. The base is ahighly classified, secured, active facility inCalifornia’s Mojave Desert that carries out awide range of live fire and simulated combattraining exercises. Fort Irwin has an averagepopulation of nearly 25,000.Building 988 at Fort Irwin is used by seniormilitary staff for coordinating the trainingof more than 6,000 personnel that transitthrough the base on different courses. Thesystem demonstration is being carriedout in a portion of the building coveringapproximately 6450 sq. ft. out of the totalbuilding area of 22,000 sq. ft. The areacomprises a conference room, open planoffices, a theatre room, common areas, rest18 | Lightnews Vol 13
ooms and private offices. A PhilipsDynalite portfolio control system wasinstalled in the building along with upgradesof existing lighting fixtures and partialreplacement with new energy-efficientPhilips Lighting luminaires.Private offices around the periphery ofthe building employ ‘daylight harvesting’techniques to provide even illuminationand to save energy. Preset scenes wereprogrammed into the system inconference rooms so that all the lightscould be turned on or off with one button.In addition, the lights could be dimmed toa pre-determined level automatically fordifferent meeting modes.Good illumination can still beenergy-efficientStaff members that work in the buildingare conscious of the need to conserveenergy and have a good code of practicein place where lights are turned off whenpeople leave a room. However, to furtherreduce energy consumption, many of theluminaires had been ‘de-lamped’, whereone of the fluorescent tubes was removed.While this did reduce power consumptionit also resulted in poor lighting conditionsat staff workstations. To compensate, somestaff resorted to bringing in their own desklamps which pushed energy usage back up.Philips Controls Project Manager, OsvaldoVelarde said the aim was to demonstratethat the building could have better lightlevels in the different functional areas of thebuilding and still use less energy. “Preliminaryresults are very positive and indicate thatwe could be reducing the DoD’s electricitybill by 30 per cent,” added Velarde.Securing accessThe greatest challenge of the project wasgaining access to the building where theteam would be working. Since Fort Irwinis a continuously operational military base,a major requirement was to minimisedisruptions to normal working routines. Itwas determined that the best time for thework to be carried out was overnight whenfewer staff are on duty. “We had to work oddhours,” Velarde said. “We started our workingday between 15 hundred and 19 hundredhours in the afternoon, depending on whichpart of the building and which day of theweek and finished between three hundredand four hundred hours in the morning.”The list of people to be working on siteand in the building on a particular day hadto be submitted in advance. It was also arequirement that everyone had to carrytheir individual clearance documents withthem at all times.Another requirement of the project wasthat everything had to be completed in thedesignated shift. “We couldn’t just turn upand do some work and then say we’d comeback the next day,” said Velarde. “Every dayhad a work plan that stated what was to bedone each shift. All equipment was takenaway and we ensured there was no dust orleft over cables lying around so that peoplewould not notice we had been there.”Serendipitous faultThe lighting controls were installed on aseparate network and isolated for securityreasons from the DoD operational ITinfrastructure. This isolation enabledthe team to install a gateway that bychance allowed Velarde and his team todemonstrate a key feature. Project Engineer,Matt Helm, had been on site commissioningparts of the system for a week when hereceived a call as he was about to board aflight home to Chicago. Fort Irwin statedthere was a problem in the conferenceroom used by the senior military staff. Assoon as he landed, Helm connected via theInternet into the DyNet system in Building998 and within five minutes had it resolved.“While everybody knew there was anissue,” Helm stated, “they also all knew thatwe got it sorted in a matter of minutes.It was very attractive and impressive tothe Fort personnel because they knew itusually took at least an hour to get specialisttradespeople on-site.”The Philips Dynalite system installed at FortIrwin has met the aim of ESTCP by showingthat energy savings can be made whilemaintaining safe and comfortable workingenvironments. Velarde stated that he hadbeen told that the building supervisors forother parts of Fort Irwin had indicatedthey would like to have a Dynalite systeminstalled after seeing the effectiveness andease-of-use of the installation in Building998. Philips continues to work with ESTCPand other organisations to develop systemsthat will help reduce federal energy costs. nThe façade of the Fort Irwinadministration building.Lightnews Vol 13 | 19
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