Small tweaks to electric waves promise big energy savings

What if we didn’t have to replace all the world’s old light bulbs with compact fluorescents and LEDs to dramatically reduce lighting’s energy footprint? What if, instead, we could “tweak” how electricity pulses through lighting systems to cut energy consumption without having to dim the lights?

A Canadian company has unveiled just such a system. Cavet Technologies says its LumiSmart ILC (for “Intelligent Lighting Controller”) system can be easily installed in less than an hour and immediately start reducing lighting-related energy bills. The technology can be used in a range of settings, including industrial buildings, commercial businesses and institutional facilities.

The system works by using a clever trick: modifying the shape of the electrical wave passing through wiring to add tiny, nanoscale on-off pulses in each wave. The strategy effectively the amount of electricity flowing into lighting systems without having any significant impact on lighting levels. By cutting electricity consumption, the technology also helps reduce carbon emissions, according to the company.

“Lighting in commercial, institutional and industrial buildings often represents as much as 40 per cent of the total electricity costs for those facilities worldwide,” said Albert Behr, president and CEO of Cavet Technologies. “Cavet’s patented LumiSmart ILC dramatically reduces these high costs within minutes of its installation.”

Depending on the type of lighting system, the LumiSmart ILC can pay for itself within 12 to 24 months, Cavet Technologies claims.

The company plans to begin distributing its product throughout Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Mexico, the Caribbean, Brazil, and United Arab Emirates.

The LumiSmart ILC is also a smart grid-enabled lighting controller that’s internet-ready, meaning it can allow users to fully and remotely control it to meet real-time needs.