CONTROLLING LIGHT

ENERGY: Accurate measurement of natural light is required to exploit it to maximum benefit – and so save on artificial lighting

A lot of energy can be saved by letting electronics compensate for human forgetfulness.

Servodan in Sønderborg in the south of Denmark knows how to do just that. The company is a northern European leader in development and production of lighting control systems.

“Many of our customers are schools and educational institutions where a lot of money is spent on lighting – often completely unnecessary lighting. The biggest sources of waste are large gyms and classrooms, where the lights are often left switched on when they are empty of people.”

Major savings 
So says Servodan’s managing director Henning Schmidt- Petersen, who adds that even with simple systems such institutions can save up to 50% on lighting costs.

“And since much better energy saving light bulbs have been developed, it really starts to have an impact,” says Schmidt-Petersen. “The first energy saving light bulbs could not cope with constantly being switched on and off, but the new generations of light bulbs can. Our control systems are not expensive in relation to the savings they can make. For example, for a sports centre the repayment time is only one year.”

The reason for installing a Servodan light control system is however not always for saving purposes, but also for comfort. “We operate principally in the border region between energy control and light regulation,” says Henning Schmidt-Petersen. “Very often the aim is to create ideal lighting by exploiting natural daylight in a room and dividing the lighting into zones, so that when there is most natural light there is least artificial light, and vice versa.”

Wireless flexibility
Servodan’s core competence is the measurement of light and the exploitation of the measurements to create optimal light conditions together with sensors that detect the presence of people. By combining infrared and ultrasound sensors, optimal conditions are achieved for determining when the lights should be on – and for how long when people are present.

“We have recently exploited this knowledge about light to develop wireless sensors which work by means of small solar cells. It means that you are free of wires when they are installed, and so the sensors can be placed optimally.” Servodan’s expertise is well-known throughout Europe. 60% of the company’s production is exported.