December 5 2007

WattStopper

"(WattStopper / Legrand)... makes buildings and homes more efficient through lighting controls."

WattStopper / Legrand is a company based in Santa Clara, California, that designs and markets lighting control systems for both commercial and residential applications. Their website cites their convictions about "the importance of providing energy efficient, convenient, and accessible controls for the work environment."

The product line currently offers "a comprehensive range of control solutions for commercial applications, including lighting control panels, occupancy sensors, automatic daylighting controls, bi-level HID controls, DALI dimming controls, and plug load controls.

For more information please visit their website or see their handy "Energy Statement" newsletter published 3 times a year. The company also has a terrific body of case studies available for download which help explain the benefits of daylight control systems in different applications.

As an architect who is passionate about making decisions based on economy and efficiency, I really appreciate the optimization potential inherent in these control systems. A professor of mine at Carnegie Mellon always had the mantra that controllable systems were a necessity in large buildings where occupants and systems do not have a direct room by room level of interaction (e.g. a wall switch). Anywhere a global system of control is introduced, some mediating controls must be provided to allow for customization based on occupancy and use. She also advocated the ability to manually override any building system on a user basis. Together these two approaches lead to buildings that are energy efficient (let us call it not wasteful) in terms of lighting and controls but at the same time do not lock the user out of making finite adjustments as needed. Controls are a very interesting topic... confusing... technical... and either liberating or undemocratic depending on their deployment. I will try to write up more on control systems later...

If you are interested in WattStopper / Legrand products and work please also read the Wal-Mart LED Food Refrigerator Case Study also posted on Greenline.

December 5th, 2007 at 2:17 PM. Posted in Products + Technology. Share this post.