The Integrated Lighting Campaign (ILC) was formally announced at the 2020 Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit. "The Next Frontier in Lighting: Getting Connected with the Integrated Lighting Campaign," workshop held on June 10th examined the flexibility and energy performance benefits of connected lighting systems, which allow for greater control of building systems and improved whole building energy savings.

Over 200 attendees representing a variety of industries and perspectives—including utilities, energy efficiency consultants, design professionals and engineers, building owners and facility managers, manufactures, and more—participated in the workshop focused on connected lighting systems. This diverse and varied group of attendees represents the new focus of the ILC well by bringing together a variety of unique strengths and challenges to help achieve the common goal of integrated lighting systems.

Felipe Leon, ILC project lead and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) electrical engineer, introduced the ILC campaign during this workshop. In his presentation, he informed attendees of the goal to achieve deeper energy savings across buildings by connecting lighting and other building systems that may share sensor data. Leon stressed the importance of sharing data and information with ILC partners to further the field of integrated lighting research as a whole, and he explained how the ILC does this through recognition of exemplary projects and case studies.

He also shared how organizations can get involved and take advantage of ILC resources to achieve their goals. During a live poll, attendees said they were most interested in gaining access to integrated lighting resources. They found value in learning from the experiences of others in the form of case studies and other resources. Leon encouraged attendees to join the ILC to gain access to resources like these, recognition, and other support in reaching their goals.

In addition to Leon, other speakers representing various integrated building technologies shared their valuable perspectives. Lauren Morlino from Efficiency Vermont and Ron Bernstein from RBCG Consulting joined the presenters during a live question and answer panel session moderated by Gabe Arnold, a PNNL systems engineer, to provide utility, energy efficiency, and system integration perspectives.

Kandice Cohen of Trane Technologies discussed the benefits of integrating lighting with HVAC systems. In addition, she shared an example of a commercial kitchen able to manage the energy use of both lighting and HVAC on a single platform. The platform was also able to create occupancy reports. The integrated kitchen achieved investment payback in under five years.

Another PNNL speaker, Michael Myer, gave an overview of U.S. Department of Energy field projects evaluating the integration of lighting with HVAC and plug load systems. Projects were conducted in health care, higher education, industrial, and government buildings. He also introduced the IoT-Upgradeable Lighting Challenge which aims to catalyze the development of luminaires that would be easy to upgrade with IoT sensors or devices after initial installation.

Figure 1 During "The Next Frontier in Lighting: Getting Connected with the Integrated Lighting Campaign" session, moderated by Gabe Arnold of PNNL, experts from a variety of fields shared their unique approaches to integrated lighting approaches.

And finally, Kenny Seeton from California State University, Dominguez Hills demonstrated the benefits of using already available lighting sensors to make HVAC occupancy based and thus derive deeper building energy savings. He shared his basis of controls design and how he was able to get buy-in from stakeholders.

The entire session recording can still be viewed on the Better Buildings Solution Center website.