Lighting Circuit Current Monitoring for Smart Fault Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial buildings face inefficiencies in managing and monitoring lighting systems, with outdated mechanical timers and photocells leading to high maintenance costs and difficulty in detecting bulb outages or faults, and the transition to smart lighting systems is costly and invasive.
Innovation Solution
A smart lighting management (SLM) platform that includes a controller with sensors to monitor lighting circuits, detect changes in current, and transmit anomaly reports to a server for verification, enabling efficient management and notification of issues without the need for immediate system upgrades.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If traditional mechanical timers and photocells are used to control lighting systems, then the system is simple and easy to implement, but the energy efficiency is poor and maintenance costs are high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a current sensor as an intermediary device that monitors lighting circuits without requiring replacement of existing light fixtures. The sensor detects changes in current flow to identify bulb failures and transmits this information to a remote server, enabling smart monitoring while keeping the original lighting infrastructure intact.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical timers and photocells with electronic current sensing and wireless communication technology. Instead of using mechanical switching mechanisms, the system uses digital current analysis to control and monitor lighting, thereby improving energy efficiency while reducing mechanical wear and maintenance requirements.
2Ease of operation
If smart lighting systems are implemented by replacing all lights with smart lights, then the lighting control capability is improved, but the entry cost becomes prohibitively expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the intelligence function from the light bulb itself and places it in a separate, inexpensive current sensor device. This allows the monitoring and control capabilities to be added to existing lighting circuits without replacing the expensive light fixtures, thereby dramatically reducing the entry cost while maintaining smart lighting functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The current sensor is designed to be universally compatible with various lighting circuit configurations and can monitor multiple bulbs simultaneously. This multi-functional approach allows a single sensor to provide failure detection, energy monitoring, and control signals for entire lighting circuits rather than requiring individual smart bulbs for each fixture.
3Productivity
If user reports or worker patrols are used to detect bulb outages, then the system requires minimal technology investment, but the detection time is delayed and productivity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements an automated feedback system where current sensors continuously monitor lighting circuits and immediately detect changes in current flow that indicate bulb failures. The system automatically transmits failure information via wireless communication to a remote server, providing real-time feedback without requiring manual inspection and enabling immediate response to lighting issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The lighting system performs self-diagnosis through automated current monitoring and failure detection. The current sensor acts as an autonomous monitoring device that independently identifies bulb outages and communicates this information without human intervention, thereby eliminating the need for manual patrols and significantly improving detection speed.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for the management of the electric lighting circuits are disclosed. The method includes monitoring one or more lighting circuits connected to a controller through one or more sensors. The one or more sensors are connected to the one or more lighting circuits and the controller. Further, the method includes detecting a change in current of a lighting circuit of the one or more lighting circuits. Furthermore, the method includes determining an anomaly in the lighting circuit based on the detected change in current of the lighting circuit. Thereafter, the method includes transmitting a report including at least the anomaly to a server for verification of the anomaly, in response to the determination.