Emergency Lighting Brown-Out Switching for Smaller Backup Batteries
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional emergency lighting systems require large, expensive high-capacity batteries to power all lights during brown-out events and waste energy outside the typical emergency lighting distribution area.
Innovation Solution
An emergency lighting system with an auxiliary power supply, a switching circuit, and a controller that selectively powers a first and second group of lights, where the controller switches to the auxiliary power supply when the input voltage falls below a threshold, reducing power consumption and allowing for a smaller, less expensive battery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If power is provided to all lights during brown-out events, then illumination coverage is maintained, but battery capacity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting system is divided into two separate groups: ambient lights and emergency lights. During brown-out events, only the emergency lights are activated while ambient lights remain off. This segmentation allows the battery to only power the essential emergency lights rather than all lights, reducing battery capacity requirements while maintaining necessary illumination coverage for safety evacuation.
2Illumination intensity
If power is provided to all lights during brown-out events, then illumination coverage is maintained, but battery cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting system is divided into two separate groups: ambient lights and emergency lights. During brown-out events, only the emergency lights are activated while ambient lights remain off. This segmentation allows the battery to only power the essential emergency lights rather than all lights, reducing battery capacity requirements while maintaining necessary illumination coverage for safety evacuation.
3Illumination intensity
If power is provided to all lights during brown-out events, then full illumination is achieved, but energy waste increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting system is divided into two separate groups: ambient lights and emergency lights. During brown-out events, only the emergency lights are activated while ambient lights remain off. This segmentation allows the battery to only power the essential emergency lights rather than all lights, reducing battery capacity requirements while maintaining necessary illumination coverage for safety evacuation.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of providing full illumination to all lights during brown-out events, the system applies partial action by activating only the essential emergency lights needed for safe evacuation. This partial illumination approach reduces energy consumption significantly while still achieving the critical safety function, eliminating wasted energy on non-essential ambient lighting.
Data Source
AI summary
An emergency lighting system including a mains power supply, an auxiliary power supply, a brown-out circuit, a plurality of lights including a first group of lights and a second group of lights, and a controller. The brown-out circuit is configured to extract input voltage information related to a voltage level of the mains power supply, and scale down an input voltage of the mains power supply to a DC voltage proportional to the voltage level. The controller is configured to control the plurality of lights. Wherein, power is provided from the mains power supply to the first group of lights and the second group of lights when the DC voltage is above a threshold, and power is provided from the auxiliary power supply to the first group of lights and not the second group of lights when the DC voltage is below the threshold.