More than one-third of the total primary energy used in the US is consumed by buildings about two-thirds of this building energy use is attributed to electricity about 30% of this electricity use is from lighting and consequently lighting dominates the potential energy savings for building electrical use. Although 25-40% of potential lighting energy savings could be achieved by daylight harvesting load shedding and scheduling etc advanced smart lighting control technologies are considered impractical for legacy buildings due to costly retrofitting. The main cost impediment is installation of low voltage wires required for carrying the control signals for advanced smart lighting systems. However the emergence of wireless sensor and actuator network technologies can provide advanced smart lighting control systems without the need for any wiring installation -- thereby greatly reducing the cost of these systems and making them economical for legacy buildings. To address this opportunity researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a break-through wireless networked dimming lighting interface. This interface easily connects with commercially available 0-10V dimming ballasts and enables low-cost individual control of individual luminaires.
1) Low costs installation of advanced smart lighting control systems into legacy buildings 2) Self-configuring wireless communication between luminaires and control systems