Calling all city workers: Who among you wouldn’t prefer to check for outed street lighting from the comfort of your desk? New lighting applications, management systems, and communication technologies make intelligent street lighting controls not just feasible but practical.
Consider the lighting system Tvilight, invented by Dutch designer Chintan Shah, who, on a flight over Europe one day, noticed that desolate streets were lit at night when no one was there to require illumination. This brought up a whole host of questions related to energy efficiency, maintenance costs, light pollution, and lighting infrastructure in general.
As Shah began to ask questions about the cost of needlessly burning bulbs, he discovered that a great deal of money could be saved with a lighting system that only turns on in real-time — and only when needed. Adjusting light levels in this way would not only save energy with smart streetlights but would make every public light a data point in a smart city lighting matrix.
Smart Street Lights
Can you imagine a streetlamp that anticipates your arrival and turns on as you walk by? This lamp could change color, announce that its bulb was getting low, and save communities billions of dollars in lighting costs.
The movement to make street lights more sustainable goes far beyond just saving money. Shah’s mentor, Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde, suggests a more artistic and “human” approach: “[The system is] not just a machine with a feedback loop, but something that has its own intelligence and is willing to negotiate, to hack you in the same way you hack it.”
This intelligent system might coordinate between lighting fixtures and emergency vehicles, turning bulbs red when a fire truck rides by so that other drivers and pedestrians know to move out of the way as the emergency vehicle approaches. By making lighting responsive to surrounding stimuli, it can better serve a community while requiring less power.
Better Monitoring for Better Servicing
Shaw predicts that his new system will cut energy costs and CO2 emissions by 80%, reducing maintenance by another 50%. System operators would make changes to lighting fixtures remotely and would know ahead of time if a bulb was going to burn out, preventing disruptions in service.
Municipalities in Holland and Ireland implemented Tvilight, and there were queries and requests from India, Turkey, Israel, and the United States, among others.
Tvilight Intelligent Street Lighting
Tvilight touts its ability to improve the lives of citizens globally through the creation of sustainable and connected cities. With over 800 projects across 20-plus countries, the company is a market leader in smart street lighting solutions.
They utilize state-of-the-art smart street lighting control systems and IoT platforms, along with its patented sensor-based presence detection technology for dynamic on-demand lighting.
Tvilight and many similar intelligent street lighting companies provide advanced, energy-efficient smart street lighting solutions using patented sensor-based presence detection technology. This technology enables dynamic, on-demand lighting that adjusts brightness depending on the time of day, weather conditions, pedestrian or vehicle traffic, and other factors. This system can reduce energy consumption by up to 80%, according to Tvilight, significantly cutting utility bills while increasing safety and security for citizens in urban areas.
Remote Management
Tvilight also offers a TALQ-certified light management platform that provides full remote management of the entire public lighting infrastructure in real-time — from dimming lights at specific times to controlling individual luminaires remotely — enabling cities to reduce operating costs while ensuring continuous operation and maintenance of their public lighting systems.
The platform also allows users to monitor their lighting systems remotely from any device with an internet connection, providing valuable insights into how their systems are performing and optimizing overall efficiency.
Thus, our query at the top of this piece: Who wouldn’t want to monitor street lighting remotely in ways that used to seem like science fiction?
Tvilight’s IoT platforms allow users to connect existing street lights with sensors monitoring air quality levels (carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc.), traffic patterns, or noise levels. This data can integrate with other systems, such as parking or traffic control, for improved decision-making and increased safety for citizens in urban areas.
This is just the beginning of a more complete solution that creates sustainable and connected cities around the world.
That’s where Prairie Electric comes in.
Roam System
Our technicians at Prairie Electric are highly skilled in cutting-edge electrical developments of all kinds.
For example, we’ve installed an LED street-lighting project in Richland, Washington, using ROAM, a network of intelligent photo controls. These control nodes are used to execute commands based on scheduling or daylight level inputs and can also fixture performance and operating conditions in 70-1000W 120- 480VAC LED, HID, and other fixtures.
Fixture performance information is transmitted wirelessly to a gateway and passed on to a server, where it displays graphically at a workstation for customers to view.
Looking for the latest in street or traffic lighting technology? Prairie Electric is your guide. We use only the latest, state-of-the-art technologies to provide you with the service you deserve and the technology you need to thrive.
Get in touch with us today with any questions or to get started on your own municipal, residential, commercial, or industrial electrical project.
This post was updated on 5/30/23.
