"Smart" Wireless Lighting also needs to be Energy Smart

(external-resource, 22 Apr 2015) “Smart” lamps combine technology breakthroughs in wireless communications and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Often controlled by a smartphone app, these lamps can dim, change colour and shift to new scenes all by simply touching your phone. However, the lamps consume energy even when they are not in use. The standby functions drastically increase the lamp’s total energy use and the standby energy can easily be larger than the energy used for providing lighting. In order to better understand smart lighting features and their associated energy use, the IEA 4E SSL Annex has launched a new study on the energy performance of smart wireless lighting.

Tests on a limited number of smart wireless LED lamps have revealed that these products can have substantial standby power consumption. In sockets operated 1-2 hours per day – common in many residential applications – some lamps will consume half or more of the lamps’ total annual energy use while the lamps are ‘off’ for 22–23 hours every day. The total energy use is thus much higher than for a simple LED lamp of equivalent light output operated by the normal on/off switch. These test results are similar to experiences with standby consumption for other products where manufacturers first focused on the new features before turning their attention to reducing the standby power consumption.

The risk that smart features may offset some of the energy-efficiency gains from switching to LED technology is the reason why the SSL Annex intends to study smart wireless lighting currently offered in the market and assess the energy use and performance characteristics of these systems.

“We are very pleased to have this new study underway with our technical experts in the SSL Annex.” said Dr. Peter Bennich, chairman of the SSL Annex’s Management Committee and representative of the Swedish Energy Agency, one of the Annex’s member countries. “As policy makers, we were aware of these new smart wireless lamps, and we are concerned that the standby power consumption for some of them is so high.”

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external-resource, 22 Apr 2015: "Smart" Wireless Lighting also needs to be Energy Smart