Power management unit with ballast interface

• US 8,552,664 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2010
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OSRAM Sylvania Inc. (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: Digital Lumens, Inc. (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Chemel, Brian J., Piepgras, Colin, Kondo, Steve T., Johnston, Scott D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Choi, Jacob Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): YANG, AMY X
• Application Number:
  US12/833,181
• Publication Number:
  US 20100295475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 315/291, 315/294, 315/297, 315/307, 315/308, 315/312
• US Class Current: 315/308
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

In embodiments of the present invention, a method and system is provided for designing improved intelligent, LED-based lighting systems. The LED based lighting systems may include fixtures with one or more of rotatable LED light bars, integrated sensors, onboard intelligence to receive signals from the LED light bars and control the LED light bars, and a mesh network connectivity to other fixtures.

Claims

1. A lighting fixture comprising:

a housing;

a light-emitting diode (LED) lighting module, in mechanical association with the housing, to provide variable lighting to an environment;

a occupancy sensor, in mechanical association with the housing, to provide occupancy data representing an occupancy state of the environment;

an ambient light sensor, in mechanical association with the housing, to provide ambient light data representing an ambient light level of the environment;

a thermal sensor, in mechanical association with the housing, to provide temperature data associated with the at least one LED lighting module;

a real-time clock, in mechanical association with the housing, to generate an output as a unit of time to facilitate tracking at least one time-based operational mode associated with the lighting fixture;

a meter circuit, in mechanical association with the housing, to determine an energy usage of the lighting fixture;

a power management unit, in mechanical association with the housing and operatively coupled to the LED lighting module, the occupancy sensor, the ambient light sensor, the thermal sensor, the real-time clock, and the meter circuit, comprising;

a memory to store a set of rules, the set of rules including at least one rule corresponding to a condition of the environment represented by the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage;

a processor to;

(i) log at least one of the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage;

(ii) perform an analysis of the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage according to the at least one rule; and

(iii) determine a variable power level for powering the LED lighting module based on the analysis;

a ballast interface, in mechanical association with the housing and in communication with the power management unit, to provide power to the at least one LED lighting module at the variable power level determined by the processor; and

a data interface, communicatively coupled to the power management unit, to provide logged data to a management module and to receive a changed rule from the management module, wherein the management module comprises another processor to;

(i) analyze past patterns of the logged data;

(ii) generate the changed rule based on the analysis of the past patterns of the logged data; and

(iii) communicate the changed rule to the power management unit via the data interface, and

wherein the power management unit is configured to reduce energy consumption of the lighting fixture based on the changed rule.

2. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the occupancy sensor comprises at least one of a motion sensor, an infrared sensor, a passive infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an electromagnetic sensor, and an optical radiation sensor.

3. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the thermal sensor comprises at least one of a thermometer, a thermocouple, a thermistor, a thermostat, a bolometer, a calorimeter, and a heat flux sensor.

4. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the meter circuit includes a hardware meter circuit to measure the energy usage.

5. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the meter circuit performs a software measurement to estimate future energy usage based at least in part on the at least one time-based operational mode.

6. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the power management unit is configured to calibrate electrical characteristics for providing power to the at least one LED lighting module.

7. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein each rule in the set of rules corresponds to a different state of the environment.

8. The lighting fixture of claim 7, wherein the power management unit is configured to implement a state machine to determine the variable power level based on a change in a state of the environment represented by the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage.

9. A method of providing variable lighting for an environment, the method comprising:

A) illuminating at least a portion of the environment at a variable illumination level with at least one light-emitting diode (LED) lighting module;

B) receiving, from an occupancy sensor, occupancy data representing an occupancy state of the environment;

C) receiving, from ambient light sensor, ambient light data representing an ambient light level of the environment;

D) receiving, from a thermal sensor, temperature data associated with the at least one LED lighting module;

E) receiving, from a real-time clock, temporal data associated with at least one time-based operational mode associated with the lighting fixture;

F) receiving, from a meter, energy usage data associated with the LED lighting module;

G) performing an analysis of the occupancy data received in B), the ambient light data received in C), the temperature data received in D), the temporal data received in E), and the energy usage data receiving in F) according to at least one rule, the at least one rule corresponding to a condition of the environment;

H) determining a change in the variable illumination level based on the analysis performed in G);

I) determining a variable power level for powering the LED lighting module so as to provide the change in the variable illumination level determined in H);

J) providing power to the at least one LED lighting module at the variable power level determined in I);

K) logging at least one of the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage.

L) providing the data logged in K) to a management module;

M) analyzing past patterns of the data provided in L) with the management module;

N) generating the changed rule with the management module based on the analysis of the past patterns in M); and

O) reducing energy consumption of the at least one LED lighting module based on the changed rule generated in N).

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

P) measuring the energy usage with a hardware meter circuit in the meter.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

Q) performing a software measurement to estimate future energy usage based at least in part on the at least one time-based operational mode.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

R) calibrating electrical characteristics for providing power to the at least one LED lighting module.

13. An apparatus for controlling a light emitting diode (LED) lighting module configured to provide variable illumination to an environment, the apparatus comprising:

a occupancy sensor to provide occupancy data representing an occupancy state of the environment;

an ambient light sensor to provide ambient light data representing an ambient light level of the environment;

a thermal sensor to provide temperature data associated with the lighting module;

a real-time clock to generate an output as a unit of time to facilitate tracking at least one time-based operational mode associated with the lighting module;

a meter circuit to determine an energy usage of the lighting module;

a memory to store at least one rule, wherein the at least one rule corresponds to a condition of the environment represented by the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage;

a processor to log at least one of the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage to the memory and to perform an analysis of the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage according to the at least one rule and to determine a variable power level for powering the LED lighting module based on the analysis; and

a communications interface, in communication with the power management unit, to provide data logged in the memory to a management module and to receive a changed rule based on an analysis of past patterns of the data logged in the memory from the management module,

wherein the processor is configured to reduce energy consumption of the lighting module based on the changed rule.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each rule in the set of rules corresponds to a different state of the environment.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the power management unit is configured to implement a state machine to determine the variable power level based on a change in a state of the environment represented by the occupancy data, the ambient light data, the temperature data, the at least one operational mode, and the energy usage.