Apparatus and method of energy efficient illumination
First Claim
1. A method of operating an illumination system, the method comprising:
- processing by at least one control subsystem information indicative of a number of levels of illumination in an environment sensed by at least one sensor at respective ones of a plurality of times during each of a plurality of daily cycles;
the processing by the at least one control subsystem including;
correlating at least one solar time with a clock of the control subsystem, the at least one solar time based at least in part on the information sensed by the at least one sensor and indicative of at least one of;
a maximum level of illumination indicative of solar noon or a minimum level of illumination indicative of solar midnight over at least one previous one of the plurality of the daily cycles which occurred prior to a current one of the plurality of daily cycles;
determining at least one illumination adjustment time with reference to the clock of the control subsystem at which to adjust a level of illumination produced by at least one illumination source during a current one of the plurality of daily cycles; and
adjusting the level of illumination produced by the least one illumination source responsive to the occurrence of the determined at least one illumination adjustment time as indicated by the clock of the control subsystem.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An illumination system correlates solar time to a clock and controls lighting or illumination based on time. The illumination system may turn ON light source(s) at a first level at a turn ON time, correlated to be around or at dusk, and turn OFF light source(s) at a turn OFF time, correlated to be around or at dawn. The illumination system may reduce a level of light output, and hence power consumption, at a time after turning ON a light source, and increases the level of light output at a time prior to turning OFF the light source. Turn ON, turn OFF, decrease and increase times may be determined based on recent levels of light or illumination in the environment, for example via average or median levels over a number of previous daily cycles. Filtering may eliminate aberrant events.
113 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method of operating an illumination system, the method comprising:
processing by at least one control subsystem information indicative of a number of levels of illumination in an environment sensed by at least one sensor at respective ones of a plurality of times during each of a plurality of daily cycles;
the processing by the at least one control subsystem including;correlating at least one solar time with a clock of the control subsystem, the at least one solar time based at least in part on the information sensed by the at least one sensor and indicative of at least one of;
a maximum level of illumination indicative of solar noon or a minimum level of illumination indicative of solar midnight over at least one previous one of the plurality of the daily cycles which occurred prior to a current one of the plurality of daily cycles;determining at least one illumination adjustment time with reference to the clock of the control subsystem at which to adjust a level of illumination produced by at least one illumination source during a current one of the plurality of daily cycles; and adjusting the level of illumination produced by the least one illumination source responsive to the occurrence of the determined at least one illumination adjustment time as indicated by the clock of the control subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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3. A method of operating an illumination system, the method comprising:
processing by at least one control subsystem information indicative of a number of levels of illumination in an environment sensed by at least one sensor at respective ones of a plurality of times during each of a plurality of daily cycles;
the processing by the at least one control subsystem including;correlating at least one solar time with a clock of the control subsystem, the at least one solar time based at least in part on the information sensed by the at least one sensor and indicative of at least one of;
a rate of change in the illumination levels or a direction of change in the illumination levels for each of the plurality of daily cycles;determining at least one illumination adjustment time with reference to the clock of the control subsystem at which to adjust a level of illumination produced by at least one illumination source during a current one of the plurality of daily cycles; and adjusting the level of illumination produced by the least one illumination source responsive to the occurrence of the determined at least one illumination adjustment time as indicated by the clock of the control subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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11. An illumination system, the illumination system comprising:
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a control subsystem that includes at least one control circuit, the control subsystem communicatively coupled to receive information indicative of a number of levels of illumination in an environment sensed by at least one sensor at respective ones of a plurality of times during each of a plurality of daily cycles, and that; correlates at least one solar time with a clock of the control subsystem, the at least one solar time based at least in part on the information indicative of the level of illumination in the environment sensed by the at least one sensor; determines at least one illumination adjustment time with reference to the clock of the control subsystem at which to adjust a level of illumination produced by at least one illumination source during a current one of the plurality of daily cycles; and adjusts the level of illumination produced by the least one illumination source responsive to the occurrence of the determined at least one illumination adjustment time as indicated by the clock of the control subsystem; and an analog timer circuit that produces at least a first control signal at a first defined period following an occurrence of a first time as indicated by the clock of the control subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification