Using technology to reduce your energy consumption is a great idea. Today there is a variety of sensors that can help you manage your building - occupancy sensors, photosensors, and hybrid lighting. Any kind of switch can be made remote and/or wireless, a real help in making productivity improvements. Check the readings of remote meters, tanks, or alarms without leaving your desk!

Computerized Control Systems

Current estimates suggest that occupancy sensors can reduce energy use by 45%, while other estimates are as high as 90%.

• Timers and sensors can reduce light usage to the necessary level.
• Occupancy sensors ensure that lights are only on when they are being actively used.
• Infrared sensors can detect heat and motion, and ultrasonic sensors can detect sound.
• Photosensors use ambient light to determine the level of light output for a fixture - can reduce windowed classroom lighting energy consumption by up to 40%, according to New Buildings Institute
• Water systems employ a number of aging technologies in their communications. Fault reporting, tank levels, and pump controls are frequently done over phone lines. These can be made wireless and remotely controlled, saving repair time and quality of service.
• PDLC (polymer dispersed liquid crystal) is a medium whose light scattering power is adjustable through applying an electric field. When the film is applied to the interior surface of a window, the opacity is controlled by a switch in the room.
• Shading systems reduce the amount of solar heat gain that enters a space while reducing glare.
  

Remote & Wireless Systems

• These systems are defined as anything that can be switched (i.e. on / off and forward / backward) or anything that can send and receive data can do so wirelessly.
• Aging phone lines for remote water or waste tank level reporting can now be replaced with wireless versions. Fault indicators also can be replaced with wireless, automated systems. No more digging up buried lines.
• Multiple lighting areas can also be controlled from a single remote station. For example, you could integrate your city's garage security camera system with an ability to control the lighting in the garage remotely, making a city's parking garages more safe.
• Entire building systems can be integrated, automating control of HVAC, lighting, security, fire, and safety systems.
  

Manufacturers / Products / Links

Johnson Controls has an entire web site devoted to Making Your Buildings Work, including a section for government buildings. Buildings that work benefit owners, occupants, and their communities. They operate efficiently and profitably and provide comfortable, safe living and work spaces – all with minimal impact on the environment. Whatever your building type, you can reduce energy costs, decrease your carbon footprint, conserve water, improve operational efficiency, and/or create a quality building environment.

Hybrid Solar Lighting

• Hybrid Solar Lighting uses a roof-mounted solar collector to send exterior solar light, via light-conducting optical cables, to interior building spaces.
• Controllers monitor the availability of solar light and supplement it as necessary with fluorescent lights to provide the desired illumination levels at each location.
• Lighting with solar tubes and hybrid solar lighting both require automation and benefit from it. Diffusers are almost always on controllers.

Your work surroundings can be vastly improved by implementing some of these technologies. Let MLC help you get the project financed!

Many city managers are faced with the challenge of making municipal buildings energy efficient. Lighting uses a lot of the energy budget for town facilities, and it's a natural target for smart improvements. Adding control technologies to the lighting of municipal administration office, schools, libraries, and other public buildings has been proven to save money. In parks and traffic controls, lamp retrofits might be the right answer for your town. Automating public works and water department functions that are currently manual will improve your service times and save you money.

Lighting and controls can be done on even your most treasured legacy buildings without damaging their historical value.

Municipal Administration Offices

Lease smart control technology to efficiently use lighting energy.

• County administration building - photosensors to adjust and monitor light levels during the day, motion sensors for security in empty rooms or night.
• Justice center - photosensors to adjust and monitor light levels during the day
• Courthouse - photosensors to adjust and monitor light levels during the day, motion sensors for security in empty rooms or night
• Juvenile detention center - motion sensors, remote alarms, and photosensors for daylight lighting where needed

Schools, Libraries and Other Public Buildings
Schools often include special use buildings that have unique lighting control needs, interior and exterior.

• Gymnasium - add motion sensors for nighttime security lighting
• Classrooms - Teacher Controls for whiteboard control, A/V equipment, and occupancy sensor override for test periods; photosensors to adjust and monitor light levels during the day
• Laboratories - photosensors to adjust and monitor light levels during the day
• Pools - timers, valve actuators, power switches, and solar controls
• Offices - motion sensors for nighttime security lighting
• Outdoor sports facilites - motion sensors for nighttime security lighting
• Security offices - remote lighting switches and alarms
• Safety phone system - wireless alarms and automated local lighting

Street Lighting, Security, and Outdoor Publics Spaces

• Street lighting - T8 vapor lamps and LED streetlights
• Cross walks - LED crosswalk control lights
• Traffic control - LED street lights, warning signs, and traffic information displays
• Parking garages - remote control of lights and alarms
• Police departments - interior and exterior lighting, specialty alarm lighting
• Fire stations - interior and exterior lighting, specialty alarm lighting
• Emergency call boxes - automate with wireless and solar panels, coordinate with local lighting controls

Maintenance and Publics Works Facilities

• Water system maintenance - simple wireless solutions for remote water system control and monitoring of alarms and status signals
• Road call boxes - upgrade to wireless
• Interior building - add motion sensors for nighttime security lighting with fluorescent T8 fixtures
• Exterior safety lighting - add motion sensors for nighttime security lighting
• Parking lot lighting - coordinate lighting controls with emergency call box activation, motions sensors for security

These tips can help you select the right monitoring and control equipment for your facility.

• Sensors can be added to legacy buildings without too much physical impact on the building.

• If no one is using a facility for a time, you would shut off the lights. Use an occupancy sensor to turn off the lights automatically if no one is using the room.

• Use a photosensor to dim the lights automatically when the natural light is sufficient.

• Install solar tubes with controls that balance the light needed vs. the light produced by the solar tube. Bring soft daylight into the recesses of your municipal buildings in a controlled way. Or consider hybrid lighting, which also uses the power of the sun.

• Install programmable thermostats and other control and monitoring technologies to achieve significant savings. Reducing heating and cooling during off-peak hours.

• Whenever possible, select all control units that are ENERGY STAR qualified.

• Install motion detectors for security.

• Consider a control system that integrates the electronically controlled systems of your buildings, such as HVAC, Solar, Security, Fire, and Water.