System to control daylight and artificial illumination and sun glare in a space
First Claim
1. An illumination maintenance system for maintaining a desired illumination profile in a space throughout at least a portion of a day where the illumination sources include daylight and artificial light, the system comprising:
- a first sensor for sensing an illumination level in at least a portion of the space;
at least one electrically controllable window treatment for at least one opening for allowing daylight into the space, the window treatment selectively altering the amount of daylight entering the space through the opening;
a plurality of electric lamps providing artificial light to supplement the daylight illumination of the space, the electric lamps being dimmable and being arranged in one or more zones in the space, the zones defining predefined volumes of the space, each zone having at least one lamp;
a control system controlling the at least one window treatment and the plurality of electric lamps to maintain the desired illumination profile in the space, the at least one lamp of each zone being controllable to a dimming level to achieve a desired illumination level in the respective zone according to the desired illumination profile;
the control system controlling the plurality of electric lamps so that the dimming level of each lamp is adjusted to achieve the desired illumination profile and compensate for the daylight illumination in the space throughout at least the portion of the day; and
the control system further operating to adjust the at least one window treatment in the event of sun glare through the opening to reduce the sun glare;
wherein the dimming level of each lamp is selected by the control system from one of a plurality of lighting presets, each preset comprising a predetermined combination of dimming levels of the at least one lamp in each zone and wherein the control system adjusts the dimming level of the electric lamps toward a lighting preset that will result in an appropriate supplementing of the daylight illumination to achieve the desired illumination profile in the space; and
the control system operating such that when the desired illumination profile within a predefined tolerance is achieved, the control system stops varying the dimming levels of the lamps and the adjustment of the window treatment.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An illumination maintenance system for maintaining a desired illumination profile in a space throughout at least a portion of a day where the illumination sources include daylight and artificial light, the system comprising a first sensor for sensing an illumination level in at least a portion of the space, at least one window treatment for at least one opening for allowing daylight into the space, the window treatment selectively altering the amount of daylight entering the space, a plurality of electric lamps providing artificial light to supplement the daylight illumination of the space; the electric lamps being dimmable, a control system controlling the at least one window treatment and the plurality of electric lamps to maintain the desired illumination profile in the space, the control system controlling the plurality of electric lamps so that the dimming level of each lamp is adjusted to achieve the desired lighting profile and compensate for the daylight illumination in the space throughout at least the portion of the day; and the control system further operating to adjust the window treatment in the event of sun glare through the opening to reduce the sun glare and such that when the desired illumination profile within a defined tolerance is achieved, the control system stops varying the dimming levels of the lamps and the adjustment of the at least one window treatment.
180 Citations
31 Claims
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1. An illumination maintenance system for maintaining a desired illumination profile in a space throughout at least a portion of a day where the illumination sources include daylight and artificial light, the system comprising:
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a first sensor for sensing an illumination level in at least a portion of the space; at least one electrically controllable window treatment for at least one opening for allowing daylight into the space, the window treatment selectively altering the amount of daylight entering the space through the opening; a plurality of electric lamps providing artificial light to supplement the daylight illumination of the space, the electric lamps being dimmable and being arranged in one or more zones in the space, the zones defining predefined volumes of the space, each zone having at least one lamp; a control system controlling the at least one window treatment and the plurality of electric lamps to maintain the desired illumination profile in the space, the at least one lamp of each zone being controllable to a dimming level to achieve a desired illumination level in the respective zone according to the desired illumination profile; the control system controlling the plurality of electric lamps so that the dimming level of each lamp is adjusted to achieve the desired illumination profile and compensate for the daylight illumination in the space throughout at least the portion of the day; and the control system further operating to adjust the at least one window treatment in the event of sun glare through the opening to reduce the sun glare; wherein the dimming level of each lamp is selected by the control system from one of a plurality of lighting presets, each preset comprising a predetermined combination of dimming levels of the at least one lamp in each zone and wherein the control system adjusts the dimming level of the electric lamps toward a lighting preset that will result in an appropriate supplementing of the daylight illumination to achieve the desired illumination profile in the space; and the control system operating such that when the desired illumination profile within a predefined tolerance is achieved, the control system stops varying the dimming levels of the lamps and the adjustment of the window treatment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for maintaining a desired illumination profile in a space throughout at least a portion of a day where the illumination sources include daylight and artificial light, the method comprising:
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sensing an illumination level in at least a portion of the space; providing at least one electrically controllable window treatment for at least one opening for allowing daylight into the space, the window treatment selectively altering the amount of daylight entering the space through the opening; supplementing the daylight illumination of the space with a plurality of electric lamps providing artificial light, the electric lamps being dimmable and being arranged in one or more zones in the space, the zones defining predefined volumes of the space, each zone having at least one lamp; controlling with a control system responsive to the sensed illumination level the at least one window treatment and the plurality of electric lamps to maintain the desired illumination profile in the space, the step of controlling comprising adjusting the dimming level of the at least one lamp of each zone to achieve a desired illumination level in the respective zone according to the desired illumination profile and thereby maintain the desired illumination profile in the space and compensate for the daylight illumination in the space; controlling with the control system the plurality of electric lamps so that the dimming level of each lamp is adjusted to achieve the desired illumination profile and compensate for the daylight illumination in the space throughout at least the portion of the day; further adjusting with the control system the at least one window treatment in the event of sun glare through the opening to reduce the sun glare; wherein the dimming level of each lamp is selected by the control system from one of a plurality of lighting presets, each preset comprising a predetermined combination of dimming levels of at least one lamp in each zone and wherein the control system adjusts the dimming level of the electric lamps toward a lighting preset that will result in an appropriate supplementing of the daylight illumination to achieve the desired illumination profile in the space; stopping varying of the dimming levels of the lamps and the adjustment of the window treatment when the desired illumination profile within a predefined tolerance is achieved; and repeating the above steps during the day to maintain the desired illumination profile throughout at least the portion of the day.
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30. An illumination maintenance system for maintaining a desired illumination profile in a space throughout at least a portion of a day where the illumination sources include daylight and artificial light, the system comprising:
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at least one interior sensor for sensing an illumination level in at least a portion of the space; at least one electrically controllable window treatment for at least one opening for allowing daylight into the space, the window treatment selectively altering the amount of daylight entering the space through the opening; a plurality of electric lamps providing artificial light to supplement the daylight illumination of the space, the electric lamps being dimmable; a control system controlling the at least one window treatment and the plurality of electric lamps to maintain the desired illumination profile in the space; the control system controlling the plurality of electric lamps so that the dimming level of each lamp is adjusted to achieve the desired illumination profile and compensate for the daylight illumination in the space throughout at least a portion of the day; wherein the control of the electric lamps is implemented based on an open loop control algorithm and the control of the at least one window treatment is implemented based on a closed loop control algorithm; and wherein the control of both the electric lamps and the at least one window treatment is based on a signal representing a single input variable derived from the at least one interior sensor. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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Specification