As Asia’s economy and population continues to grow, the continent faces serious challenges in balancing sustainability with urbanisation, and maintaining energy security in order to continue its rapid growth.
The building and construction sector is at once part of the challenge and the solution.The Asia Business Council estimates that more than half of the world’s new construction is taking place in Asia, but that “the great potential for efficiency improvement (in this sector) is largely untapped”.
In Singapore, the need for energy reduction is just as pressing - the sector must reduce emissions by up to 16 per cent by 2020 in order to meet the government’s national commitment to reduce emissions by 7 to 11 per cent below business-as-usual (BAU) levels by then.
Brent Boekestein, director of global markets for Redwood Intelligent Lighting Network solution from Commscope, notes that intelligent and responsive infrastructure solutions must be deployed to help buildings achieve the high levels of energy efficiency required for sustainable growth.
Such solutions monitor building environments, and adjust variables such as temperature and lighting based on the needs and behaviours of occupants. Lighting, which can account for about 35 per cent of building’s energy use, is increasingly being recognised as an area with significant potential to reduce energy consumption in cities.
These ‘smart lighting’ systems automatically adjust lighting based on factors such as occupancy, availability of daylight, and time of the day. Lighting networks in buildings, because of their ubiquitous presence, can also be tapped on not only for energy savings, but also to make better usage of office space to achieve an overall “high performance building”, says Boekestein.
In order for buildings to be “high performing” when it comes to efficiency, says Boekestein, they must be responsive to occupants, collect data seamlessly across all systems, and present this data in a format that is useable by decision makers.
“These characteristics lead to the building using fewer resources in the form of electricity, space, human resources for cleaning and maintenance and ultimately, money”, he adds.
While intelligent building system technologies do exist, adoption rates have been low to date. Boekestein attributes this to the high cost of installing sensors all over a building to collect the requisite data, a lack of understanding amongst decision makers about the importance of making buildings more sustainable, and an absence of interaction between building designers responsible for individual components such as lighting, cooling and security.
“Major consulting practices have only recently begun adopting an integrated approach that recognises the potential of these subsystems”, says Boekestein.
CommScope’s Redwood Intelligent Lighting Network Solution is a technology that exemplifies this integrated approach towards building management and sustainability.
A central engine delivers power to all lights within CommScope’s Redwood Intelligent Lighting Network solution, with a gateway that collects data from sensors located next to each light.
At first glance, the product installs low cost, low voltage LED lights throughout a facility, each with a sensor affixed to it. These sensors collect data on variables such as light levels and occupancy, which is then processed through a web-based software programme which controls lights, sets lighting policies and enables daylight harvesting, amongst other functions.
In addition to these lighting-related functions, however, the sensors also collect data on an ever-expanding list of variables, including temperature and power usage, which affords building managers a more holistic picture of how energy and space are utilised. This enhanced functionality, says Boekestein, makes the company capable of enhancing overall building performance through lighting management infrastructure alone.
“Lighting is a great gateway to provide data and intelligence about a building, because it is nearly everywhere in a building. We saw an opportunity to transform that infrastructure into something much more valuable: a data collection source in which the information captured (occupancy, temperature, daylight) could be used to not only drive efficiencies in the lighting system but also into all the other sub-systems that would benefit from knowing when, where, and how the building is being used”, Boekestein explains.
He adds, “instead of just selling an energy efficient lighting system, which will increasingly be seen as a “must have” in a building, we set out to give the customer lighting and intelligence for a cost that would provide a reasonable and justifiable payback”.
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Lighting is a great gateway to provide data and intelligence about a building, because it is nearly everywhere in a building. We saw an opportunity to transform that infrastructure into something much more valuable.
Brent Boekestein, Director, Global Markets, Redwood Intelligent Lighting Network Solution from Commscope
While payback periods for investing in systems vary depending on a building’s structure and operating hours, “the return on investment is typically between one and five years”, says Boekestein. Commscope counts Facebook, Volkswagen and SAP amongst its intenarional clientele for Redwood. Larry Morgan, SAP Head of Operations for the Palo Alto and Vancouver Regions, says, “this solution provides us data around space utilisation and temperature mapping that gives us insight we need to intelligently operate our facilities off one platform”.
The Redwood Solution was recently introduced into the Asian market, with Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) as one of the earliest adopters in the region. The government agency has implemented the Redwood lighting solution at their Zero Energy Building - a three-story building that has been retrofitted with solar panels, natural ventilation and passive lighting technologies to be energy self-sufficient - and one of their research offices. At the latter location, BCA reports a 40 per cent reduction in energy usage compared to the previous fluorescent lighting system.
“The real-time temperature, space utilisation and lighting data relay plays an important role in controlling the building systems as it transmits data on the actual demand required by the occupants”, says a BCA spokesperson. “Hence, this minimizes the energy consumption by effectively reducing wastage through optimizing all building systems’ energy usage.”
BCA encourages the use of technology to make buildings more energy efficient. It has set a target to certify 80 per cent of buildings in Singapore under its Green Mark scheme by 2030. The Green Mark scheme, introduced by BCA in 2005, is a benchmarking scheme that encourages the adoption of green building technologies in new and existing buildings, to achieve outcomes such as greater energy and water efficiency, improved indoor air quality, and lower overall emissions from the building sector.
In the latest version of the certification scheme, BCA has introduced a new component that allows applicants to earn additional points for maximising daylighting in buildings.
“Lighting accounts for 20 per cent of the total energy consumption in buildings. Incorporating passive design strategies to harness daylight generally reduces the overall energy consumption of buildings. Complemented by efficient lighting, this would significantly impact on the total energy consumption of buildings”, explains a BCA spokesperson.
“In addition, studies have shown that daylighting can have a positive psychological effect on occupants”, they add.
With environmental awareness growing in Asia, CommScope is optimistic about the potential of the intelligent lighting systems technology to make a difference in Asia’s building sector.
“Across the Asia Pacific region, we see great potential in Hong Kong, urban areas in China, and Australia. Right now, Singapore is one of the leading markets for green buildings. It has a regulatory environment that provides forward thinking building codes, MNC and local customers that take a holistic view of their project expenditure, and a cost of power that is high enough to provide incentives for people to invest in energy efficiency technology that has reasonable returns”, says Boekestein.
