Lon lights up Olympics
Organisers of the Olympic Games in Beijing have gone to great lengths to reduce the energy consumption of the lighting to be used in the athletes’ village.
Lighting typically consumes as much as a third of the electricity used in a building, so system designers for the Beijing venues have opted for an intelligent control system, driven by Echelon’s LonWorks technology, that integrates all lighting sub-systems.
The Olympic Village is the largest non-competition venue in Beijing, and will accommodate over 23,000 athletes and team officials for both the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Village has over 370,000 square meters of apartment space, including 22 six-floor buildings and 20 nine-floor buildings, and facilities such as general information centres, meeting rooms, medical clinics, religious centres, multiple restaurants, a library, parking areas, and entertainment and leisure activity centres.
The smart lighting control system integrates lighting sub-systems for the apartments, public areas, car park areas, and all landscaping. In addition to increased energy efficiency and safety, the system is designed to enhance the beauty of the Village by illuminating architectural details on the buildings and entry arches into the Village, as well as various landscape features such as water fountains.
Solutions
“Beijing is making substantial, if not historic, efforts to produce the first ‘green Games’ that have an impact on the entire country – not just the Olympic venues,” said Anders Axelsson, Echelon’s senior vice-president of marketing. “The Olympic Village is essentially a city within a city and a great example of how Echelon and its partners can bring solutions that can enhance the quality of life in a city while at the same time making it more energy efficient.”
The advanced lighting control system was installed by Lang Meng Technology. It uses LonWorks enabled power controllers and analog input modules from Nico Technology to control the lighting system, and to monitor output status. Echelon’s LNS® network management software was used to design and install the network, and Echelon’s i.LON® Internet Servers automatically turn on or off lights based on pre-programmed scheduling functions. The i.LON servers interface with Advantech Industrial Automation Group’s WebAccess HMI, which can be used to monitor and control the system from the property management centre.
“There are a vast numbers of devices scattered across a large area,” said Vincent Wang, general manager of Lang Meng. “It is extremely important to China that the Village be seen positively by the tens of millions of viewers who will be watching the Olympics on television. Because the LonWorks products from our various suppliers integrate easily, we were able install and configure the project in less than two months, helping to ensure that the Olympic Village will be open on schedule.”
Echelon’s LonWorks control technology is incorporated in the Chinese national standard for building automation, intelligent residential community construction, and in the national standard for control applications.
The city of Beijing has committed to reducing water and energy usage by 5 per cent this year ahead of the Games.