An innovative lighting controller integrated in a self-adaptive building control system

An innovative and self-adaptive integrated system for building energy and comfort management has been developed. Both artificial and natural lighting controllers have been designed in order to fit the integrated approach. The shading device controller is split into two parts depending on the user presence. When the user is present, priority is given to visual comfort, and when he is absent, priority is given to thermal aspects (heating/cooling energy saving). The artificial Lighting controller is used to complete the illuminance in the room up to the level desired by the user, which is learned by the system through the user wishes. Many simulations have allowed comparing different variants of the lighting controllers. The models used in the control system are regularly adapted to the measurements. Therefore, the system continuously adapts itself to the environment and the room characteristics. Four months of experiments in the occupied LESO-PB office building have demonstrated that this integrated system leads to interesting energy saving (25% less of total energy consumption) compared to a conventional one. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.