Smart Office: Automatic Lighting System

Motivation

In recent time, energy conservation in all forms has become the primary concern for designers of futuristic products. Global warming and alarmingly high green house gas emission have provided even more thrust for creating a future society that will adaptively conserve energy as per user requirements. Electricity is one of the major source of global warming and green house gas emissions.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, excluding transportation, energy consumption used for lighting and air conditioning can substatially be decreased in the remaining sections which make up 72% of the total US energy consumption seen below in Figure 1 (residential, commercial, and industrial). In Figure 2, it can be seen that lighting and air conditioning accounts for a total of 34% of residential energy use. Also in Figure 3, it can be seen that 29% of commercial energy use account for the same applications.

Figure 1. Energy Consumption Percentatges	Figure 2. Residential Consumption Percentatges	Figure 3. Commercial Consumption Percentatges

Proposed Energy Saving Low Power Lighting System

As mentioned above, lighting and air conditioning account for a large perecentage of the U.S. energy usage. If an automated lighting system were used, energy consumption for lighting and air conditioning in the residential and commercial sectors could substatially be decreased.

The prototype system implemented in this project includes wireless automatic and manual blinds controlled by the Chronos EZ430 watch. The blinds are controlled in an auto mode depending on the light intensity in front or behind the blinds (read from the 2 strategically placed light dependent resistors (LDR) sensors). The user also has the option of manual blinds control with the watch. This can come in handy if the user desires to close/open their window blinds from the car or outside the house.

Placing a similar device on every window in a large building would substantially decrease lighting and cooling costs during the hot summer thus making this product a necessity during today's energy conservation or "green" movement. This system also adds to the new idea of the smart house/office concept for future generations.

Figure 4. Image all the energy that could be saved through a simple click of the Chronos EZ430 watch in each building.

Authors

• Karthik Ramana Sankar (krsankar@mail.utexas.edu)
• Nilanjan Goswami (n-goswami@ti.com)
• Mario Malavé (malave@ti.com)

Features

• Automated blinds control based on sensor readings
• Manual blinds control based on user inputs
• Turning lights on and off

Pictures & Videos

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  Complete circuit connections

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  Motor controller connected to blinds mechanism

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  Window Blinds Motor Controller and RF transceiver

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  LDR light sensors placed in front and behind the blinds

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  Chronos EZ430 Watch

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  CC1110F32 RF SOC

Working Demo Video

{{#evp:youtube|gVIsu5mOb-8|Demonstration of the automatic lighting system|left}}

Usage Instructions

The watch acts as a master in this system. Using the # button, you can switch to the "BLIND" mode to control the window blinds inside your room. There are two different modes you can choose from which include manual and automatic. In "manual mode" you can close/open the blinds wirelessly using the watch. In manual mode, short S1 button press opens the blinds fully and short S2 button press closes the blinds fully. Using the down arrow (S2) button user can switch to the automatic mode. Automatic mode uses the light intensity measured by the light dependent resistors (LDRs) and adjust the blinds to maximize the light in the room. By holding the # button for a long period, the user can switch to the manual mode.

Source Code

Automatic Lighting System - Source Code

Schematics

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  Controller Schematic Design