Computer controlled lighting system

Atkinson Hall has been actively and aggressively participating in the Universities on going efforts to conserver energy over the past year. In the area of interior lighting we have reduced the quantity of lights programmed ON during the day by over 50% and we are continuing to discover new areas in the building where lights can be turned off when not needed. The open areas, lab spaces and hallway areas of the building are controlled by the Watt Stopper lighting control computer system. The Watt Stopper computer control system has the ability to control and program ON-OFF schedules for each individual light switch in these areas of the building.

Currently, we have 50% of the buildings interior lights programmed to come ON at 4:30am Monday through Friday when the building custodial staff arrive each day, and programmed OFF at 7pm in some of the open areas and at 10pm for the rest of the building. Building occupants who work beyond these hours and wish to have their lights remain ON can do so by pushing the ON button located on the wall mounted lighting control switches near their area of occupancy, this will over-ride the computer OFF command for 1 hour before the lighting control computer warns the occupant with a quick OFF-ON cycle 5 minutes before the lights are turned OFF again. The 1 hour over-ride ON cycle can be reset for however many times the occupant requires.

All other areas of the building such as offices, research alcoves and in some conference rooms have all been outfitted with over head or wall mounted infrared sensor lighting controllers that automatically operate the ON-OFF control function when an occupant either enters or exits the space. These sensors will keep the lights on as long as they read motion, and after a period of time when no motion is sensed the lights will turn OFF. Currently, the sensors are programmed to turn OFF 15 minutes after the last motion detection; we will be re-calibrating this time interval on each sensor down to 5 minutes to further conserver energy.