Saving Electricity, Saving $

Reported May 2007

TROY, N.Y., (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Lighting an office building can cost a lot of money, and sometimes those lights are left on even when natural sunlight is pouring through the windows. Now, an easy solution, called DaySwitch, makes the most of those sunny days at work and soon, at home.

"Lighting has a big impact on our lives but we pay the price because it uses a lot of electricity," says Andrew Bierman, M.S., a lighting research scientist from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Lighting makes up 25 percent of energy consumed by businesses. However, businesses could soon lower their electric bills.

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Bierman developed the DaySwitch; it uses natural light to conserve electricity. "DaySwitch is an automatic device that will simply shut the lights off when there is plenty of daylight available," he explains. The DaySwitch is a tiny sensor that measures sunlight in an area and then it sends a signal to turn lights on or off as needed.

Bierman told Ivanhoe about the inspiration behind the invention. He says, "You don't have to have the electric lights on when they are really not providing any more useful light than you already have with daylight."

Unlike typical lighting controls, the DaySwitch is easy to install and costs less than $25 per system. After it's installed, an easy-to-use remote control can reset the sensor to your desired level, so there is no need to call expensive electricians. When natural sunlight brightens the space, the lights go off, which cuts the lighting needs of a building in half, therefore saving on energy costs. DaySwitch could be available for homes within a year.

The Optical Society of contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Keith Toomey
Director of Communications
Lighting Research Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180
518-687-7174
toomek@rpi.edu

Optical Society of America
Washington, DC 20036-1023
202-223-8130
http://www.osa.org
info@osa.org

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