University of California, Santa Barbara

UCSB noted that while campus corridors were well-lit 24/7, they speculated low occupancy of 50–85 percent. However, data gathered from occupancy sensors in a 2013 research project conducted by the State Partnership for Energy Efficient Demonstrations (SPEED) showed occupancy rates within university corridors rarely exceeded 15 percent. The combination of long lighting hours and low occupancy rates signified a tremendous opportunity to reduce energy costs.  

After seeing what was possible with the Enlighted system in a 2013 project funded by the Public Interest Engineering Research (PIER) program for higher-education sustainability, UCSB chose to move forward with this new energy project also using Enlighted’s platform. Enlighted’s advanced sensors provided several unique benefits to the university to achieve the following goals:

• Retrofit corridors in buildings across campus with LED lighting
  • In 2015, the university completed retrofits in their first full building — in the administrative offices where they first performed their trial implementation. UCSB is continuing to modernize old campus buildings, ultimately improving the quality of the space for our students and staff. 

• Include Enlighted sensors and controls as part of the retrofit for university corridors
  • The campus now has over 1,500 Enlighted sensors in seven buildings, with an assortment of space types and varying lighting needs. The installation includes six high-bay gyms, where lighting configurations are carefully managed to maximize safe experiences for student athletes while minimizing energy use.
    
    
• Build out other spaces in the buildings with Enlighted capabilities to capture additional energy savings
  • The facilities management team continues to build out the campus with a long-term plan toward greater efficiency and sustainability. UCSB is exploring additional opportunities to deploy the Enlighted system across the campus’s five million square feet of state-operated building space. They are also evaluating the opportunity to use the same Enlighted sensors to inform HVAC control and for the Energy Manager to connect to the existing building energy management system. 

UCSB partnered with Enlighted to fully commission seven buildings with 1,567 Enlighted sensors. Operating selected areas in a dimmed state 85 percent of the time and using adaptive lighting delivered reductions in lighting energy use, with energy savings of 76 percent, and significantly lowered maintenance costs. UCSB continues to work with Enlighted to explore additional ways to deploy the Enlighted System across the campus’s five million square feet of building space.