Making the Most of Lighting Controls

The savings that can be realized by a switch from traditional lighting sources to LEDs are so impressive that it's easy to be satisfied with just that. However, the most energy efficient lighting solutions are the ones that are only on when they're needed.

SimplySNAP provides a number of efficiency options that aren't possible with traditional photocell and motion switches that only provide on and off settings. The next portion of this document is dedicated to optimizations and "best practices" that will help you take full advantage of your lighting control system.

Dim Lights below 80% brightness

Modern LEDs are very bright and efficient, and it's easy to accidentally have more light than an area actually needs. In SimplySNAP you can set the initial level for a light to be less than 100% power.  By default, SimplySNAP dims lights to 80% power, which can provide impressive savings with no loss of available lighting. Moving the default setting below 80% can save even more power.

For more on setting initial levels, see Editing a Light or Sensor Setting The initial level setting is in the Advanced section near the bottom of the page.

Use Jitter to Eliminate Power Surges

When a traditional lighting system is switched on, every light on the circuit gets power at the same time. Each time this happens there is a surge in power usage that can affect your power bill.

The Jitter setting provides a means for phasing in lights over a number of seconds to help eliminate these expensive surges. Jitter is a delay setting, expressed in seconds, that powers lights in a random pattern over a number of seconds to limit the effects of power surges.

To implement Jitter in your SimplySNAP installation, see Editing a Light or Sensor Setting

If you want to implement Jitter in a large number of lights it may be easiest to make the changes using a .CSV file. For an easy way to change a lot of lights at the same time, see Importing and Exporting Light Configurations using a .CSV File

Use Schedules and Sensors to Dim or Deactivate Lights When They're Not in Use

The scheduling function in SimplySNAP allows you to set schedules that dim or deactivate lights during a building's off hours. This can be really helpful until circumstance dictates that someone be in that area during a non-standard time.

Sensors can support a lighting solution by temporarily activating lights when motion is detected, and then dimming them back to off when motion is no longer detected.

To learn more about schedules, see Scheduled Events

To learn more about adding sensors, see Adding Sensors and Switches