Welsh start-up EnModus says its smart lighting solution has cut lighting energy consumption by 99% at a Virgin Media technical facility.
The technology has also reduced heat load, with positive side-effects for Virgin’s cooling systems, with the facility required to operate within defined temperature parameters.
Validated by Virgin Media, carbon emissions have dropped by around 2.45 tonnes per annum as a result of the intelligent controls.
EnModus replaced a proportion of the facility’s fluorescent lighting with LED units that house a comms node which uses existing power cables to communicate to a hub, which connects to a cloud-based platform. The system monitors energy data in real time and activates lights only when occupancy is detected.
Previously, staff at the Virgin facility turned on the fluorescent lights at the start of the shift despite many spaces being infrequently visited by maintenance staff.
EnModus CEO Andy Heaton said working with Virgin Media was a “coup for a start-up” and said the results of the project validated the firm’s ‘Wattwave’ powerline control solution. He said lighting control was just one application of the technology and that the firm can control, monitor and connect to the internet anything that is mains powered within a building.
The firm is also working with retail supply-chain business Catalyst and Volvo-owned Scottish manufacturer Terex Trucks.
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Another way to headline this article would be to say that Virgin Media were using a hundred times as much energy for lighting as necessary. I would be interested to know why lighting needs ‘cloud-based’ control and what the energy overhead is for the consequential comms and IT load
they could’ve done the exact same thing by putting PIR’s in with a power down to 10% lighting function for safety/emergency routes when not in use, without having to go cloud based for much less in terms of cost.
Interested in EnModus, but the title of this article is very misleading. I also agree with the comments above. In addition to this the 2.45 tonnes of energy saving is very low for a lighting project. Brendan needs to give more context before this is a good article.