Lena Chen
12 October, 2018
Sustainable Systems
Project Proposal
Designed to reduce electricity waste, this project aims at improving the lighting system in New York. One cannot live a day without electricity, as it is one of the most essential and indispensable energy that is consumed through various media, such as refrigerator, air conditioner, lamp, phone charger, microwave, washer, dryer, etc. This project focuses on enhancing the lighting system that relies on electricity to ensure the city runs effectively. And the ultimate goal of the project is to build a more sustainable urban environment for people to live in.
The wicked problem being addressed here is ubiquitous in a metropolis like New York, where people depend greatly on electricity to maintain a stable and comfortable lifestyle. For individuals, we unconsciously generate a considerable amount of energy loss by leaving lights open when we are no longer using them. For residents as a whole, we waste electricity by having a large-scale mechanical lighting system spreading all over the city, from street lights, traffic lights to building lights. An automatic, non-stop lighting system indeed creates a more comfortable living environment for us, but it is not always efficiently utilized. For example, plenty of rooms in campus are empty at night but still have the lights on. In some remote areas, there are streets lamps with lights on but scarcely anyone or any vehicles pass by. The energy waste here is hard to notice. It is invisible, but it matters because it adds up to something significant.
The project is divided into two parts: city street lighting and household lighting. The community that affected by this project will be everyone in New York, because street lights are everywhere and even those who seldom go out use lamps in their home. Replacement of street lights can be implemented under a simple policy, but that of household lights will take time to become comprehensive, depending on each person’s preference, financial status, as well as the specific time it takes for each individual to respond to such a signal of society changes.
The project will re-design both the entities of lighting design and a behind-scenes operating system. Basically the strategy it to install infrared sensors into lights. Most infrared sensors are made of pyroelectric materials, either natural or artificial. They retrieve infrared waves via either parabolic mirrors or Fresnel lenses. Once the information of someone showing up is received, the sensor generates a voltage that delivers command to other operating systems, which, in this case, is the switch of lights. For this particular project, the sensors should be programmed in a way that they not only turn on the lights when they detect someone entering the space, but also turn off when that person leaves the space.
It might take a long time to make this project come true because it is not an easy thing to renovate the entire lighting system of a highly structured city. The urban environment will certainly change as a result. For one thing, the level of luminance will decrease, which reduce light pollution. What also decreases is the urban heat island effect, since less lighting means less heat.
There are still some challenges that this project faces. The biggest challenge would be to lower the cost of installing infrared sensors into the countless lights all over New York. It is unavoidable that the city administrators would spend some time weighing cost against benefits, the huge capital required to build this project versus the energy that could be saved because of it. Therefore, we need to highlight the how much the future potential of such a project can far exceeds funding. There is also another solution that can be brought up to demonstrate the feasibility of this project, which is replacing raw materials that make up infrared sensors with cheap ones. But this requires sufficient scientific resources to make advances or to develop existing technology.
References of sustainable lighting design
- The newly constructed expertise centre of Siemens Flow Instruments in the Danish city of Sønderborg consists of a modern test centre, production bays and a management building located on around 7600 square metres. Innovative, sustainable indoor and outdoor luminaires and lighting control options from Osram Lighting Solutions ensure high lumen-output, efficient and durable lighting that meets the high standards of the global company in every way. Intelligent DALI-based light control with motion- and daylight detection ensures light precisely according to needs and energy-efficient utilisation of light in the building.
“Siemens Flow Instruments puts its trust in sustainable lighting solutions from Osram at its new headquarters in Sønderborg,” 04.05.2017,
https://www.osram.com/ls/press/case-siemens-denmark/index.jsp
- David Trubridge draws inspiration from time spent alone in nature and designs lighting dixtures made from highly renewable bamboo in a facility with 100% renewable electricity, flat-packed in 100% recycled packaging.
“Green Designers”, Lightology,
https://www.lightology.com/index.php?module=how_to&sub=green_designers
- Californian industrial design and manufacturing company Cerno places a strong emphasis on accountability to the environment, using responsibly-sourced materials and only energy-efficient LED technology.
“Green Designers”, Lightology,
https://www.lightology.com/index.php?module=how_to&sub=green_designers
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