http://www.ktvq.com/story/32440627/first-look-at-billings-fully-sustainable-off-the-grid-home
Tag: USA
Solar Decathlon 2015 Team Orange – UC Irvine
LumenCache is proud to be selected by Team Orange County to provide the advanced lighting for their Solar Decathlon home. This low voltage DC lighting solution helped them integrate with their energy management and controls to achieve their low-consumption goals without sacrificing the bright and inviting lighting plan they designed.
Near Net-Zero Home
3700-sqft single story residence with a full basement was designed and built in just 5 months. Owners wanted a high-performance, yet ultra low operating cost home they can retire into, yet would fit into the covenants of an average Midwest neighborhood (harder that it sounds).
They focused on the most critical consumers of energy first so naturally installed Geothermal HVAC and invested in a balanced, high R-value insulation package.
The site and orientation of the home was selected to take advantage of the natural seasonal sun energy and gain some Passive House benefits. LumenCache roller shades are being added 3Q12 when released to fully take advantage of the solar resource through automation.
The next consumer is the lighting. The owners wanted a lot of light, but were not looking forward to high energy bills throughout their retirement so LEDs were the natural choice. Over 82 LumenCache LED lights fill the spaces with bright, beautiful, and perfectly dimmable light, and “changing a bulb” is a thing of the past with the drivers being located in three easy to access enclosures. With ALL the lights on FULL POWER they consume less than 800 Watts total.
The lighting enclosures contain the AC/DC battery charger power supply, a large sealed deep-cycle battery, and the LumenCache Power Distribution Modules. Simple Cat5 wires head in all directions to the light fixtures and switches and provide lighting power and data communications.
All the lights are LumenCache LEDs except the large chandelier in the foyer and the flood lights outside the house. This home was the very first LumenCache beta installation and at the time the options for “bulb” type fixtures using the LumenCache technology were limited (non-existent). Check out other project profiles to see how we totally solved that issue and now have many solutions for sconces, pendents, flood lights, and even large chandeliers.
A complete smart home structured wiring package was installed so there’s lots of TVs and entertainment electronics running that are big energy consumers. Even with all these loads on, the house electricity bills have averaged $55/mo.
How? There’s also a 4.88kW solar array on part of the roof. The large shed roof section was designed to support 3x this number of panels and can easily be added thanks to the micro-inverters under each panel.
When the new LumenCache occupancy detection sensors and ambient light detectors are installed, we can start activating the light-harvesting capabilities of LumenCache. Because the lights are all controlled by the single system, auto-configuration and switch-to-light connections are virtually assigned automatically. Further reducing the installation speed that Cat5 lighting is capable of delivering.
Parts Used
7 LumenCache Legacy Power Distribution Modules (L-PDM)
3 LumenCache Power Management Modules
3 12V Battery
3 AC/DC Battery Charger Power Supply
20 6″ recessed 650lm, 82CRI, 3000K fixtures w/Constant Current BoostPucks
50 4″ recessed 550lm, 82CRI, 3000K fixtures w/Constant Current BoostPucks
22 LumenCache SwitchPucks
5000′ Cat5e
2 40″ Enclosure
1 28″ Enclosure
Forest City Wellness Center
Forest City Enterprises wellness center project completed November 2014.
Mike Smith, VP Building Technology Services Group at Forest City Enterprises, said “They [controls engineers] had to double check the readings because they were so low. After calibration and checking each one we found it is costing about 60% of what we expected to operate.”
LEDs combined with efficient drivers, 2-level lighting controls, and occupancy detection create high system-level efficiency.
“We haven’t had an AC power failure at the building yet so we haven’t used the battery backup feature.” says Smith.
Their team did the payback analysis on adding solar panels to the building and found it was a little too long of a payback. “The load is so small that it’s not worth it to add to this project. New construction or projects with planned solar would have payback well within our desired timeframes.”
Parts Used
30 LumenCache Legacy Power Distribution Modules (L-PDM)y
6 12V Battery
6 AC/DC Battery Charger Power Supply
170 6″ recessed 900lm, 82CRI, 3000K fixtures w/Constant Current BoostPucks
67 2×2 panel lights 2900lm, 3000K fixtures w/Constant Current BoostPucks
20 LumenCache SwitchPucks
20 Daylight harvesting Motion Sensors
5 40″ Enclosure
2 28″ Enclosure
Dixon Residence
In addition to being a three-time IndyCar champ, Scott and Emma Dixon understand investments, technology, and design. They chose LumenCache for their new home in Indianapolis.
While 136 of the lights far exceeded their expectations for lighting and controls, Emma had concerns with the “bulb” options for her 17 decorative chandeliers and sconces. Like any new technology, the available options for filament style LED light bulbs were extremely limited and compounded by the DC supply manufacturers were not used to. New 12V LED bulbs are appearing on the market, providing more options each month.
Products Used
12 LumenCache LibRE Power Distribution Modules (L-PDM)
2 12V Battery
2 AC/DC Battery Charger Power Supply
136 6″ recessed 900lm, 82CRI, 2700K fixtures w/Constant Current BoostPucks
6 6″ Surface lights (Utility space) 1000lm w/Constant Current BoostPucks
16 12-24V signal amps for sconce/chandelier fixtures
70 LumenCache SwitchPucks
2 40″ Enclosure
1 28″ Enclosure