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;
determining a time of a first event during a first one of the daily cycles based at least in part on each of a plurality of levels of illumination sensed in the environment during the first one of the daily cycles by the at least one sensor;
storing the information indicative of the sensed levels of illumination in at least one nonvolatile storage medium;
determining at least a first illumination adjustment time with reference to a 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 based at least in part on the determined time of the first event during the first one of the daily cycles and filtering out information corresponding to a short term event from the information based on at least one threshold value that specifies a minimum duration; 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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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.
152 Citations
29 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;determining a time of a first event during a first one of the daily cycles based at least in part on each of a plurality of levels of illumination sensed in the environment during the first one of the daily cycles by the at least one sensor; storing the information indicative of the sensed levels of illumination in at least one nonvolatile storage medium; determining at least a first illumination adjustment time with reference to a 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 based at least in part on the determined time of the first event during the first one of the daily cycles and filtering out information corresponding to a short term event from the information based on at least one threshold value that specifies a minimum duration; 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, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An illumination system, the illumination system comprising:
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; determines a time of a first event during a first one of the daily cycles based at least in part on each of a plurality of levels of illumination sensed in the environment during the first one of the daily cycles by the at least one sensor; stores the information indicative of the sensed levels of illumination in at least one nonvolatile storage medium; 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 based at least in part on the determined time of the first event during the first one of the daily cycles and filters out information corresponding to a short term event from the information based on at least one threshold value that specifies a minimum duration; 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. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of operating an illumination system, the method comprising:
processing, by at least one control subsystem, at least three samples, each of the at least three samples including information indicative of a level of illumination in an environment sensed by at least one sensor at respective ones of at least three times during each of a plurality of daily cycles;
the processing by the at least one control subsystem including;determining a time of a first event during a first one of the plurality of daily cycles based at least in part on each of the at least three samples including information indicative of the level of illumination sensed by the at least one sensor during the first one of the plurality of daily cycles; determining at least a first illumination adjustment time at which to adjust a luminous output provided by at least one illumination source during a current one of the plurality of daily cycles, the first illumination adjustment time determined with reference to a clock of the at least one control subsystem and based at least in part on the determined time of the first event during the first one of the plurality of daily cycles; and adjusting the luminous output provided by the least one illumination source responsive to an occurrence of the determined at least one illumination adjustment time as indicated by the clock of the at least one control subsystem.
Specification