Designing K-12 Smart Lighting System with Enlighted Smart Sensors 

Sensors are the backbone of any smart lighting system. Whether designing for a classroom, hallway, gymnasium or private administrative office, the sensor plays the single largest role in determining the energy savings, student, teacher and administrative staff comfort and code compliance of the school. The better the sensor, the smoother the designing and owning experience!  

When designing a school lighting system, designers need to consider many aspects: wiring needs, bill of material, sequence of operation, aesthetics, hardware capabilities, cost and future needs of end-users. As such, the sensor plays a critical role in enabling lighting designers and specifiers to deliver a system that provides maximum value to their K-12 school clients. Below are five ways in which the Enlighted sensor family enables specifiers in delivering top quality smart lighting system tailored to meet the specific learning, compliance, and energy savings needs to K-12 schools. 

1. All-in-One Device: The Enlighted sensors are an all-in-one device that provide occupancy, vacancy, power, ambient light and temperature information. This results in simpler lighting designs, fewer sensors and lower system cost! The data is collected 65 times per second and processed locally, delivering improved detection & energy saving performance.  
2. Reliability & Robustness: Enlighted sensors feature an embedded powerful microprocessor. This enables the sensor to process the data locally. Moreover, the sensor stores the lighting behavior, schedules and profiles locally. While many lighting control systems may revert to defaults after experiencing power or network interruptions, Enlighted continues normal operation due to the microprocessor.  
3. Designing for Circadian Rythm: Circadian rhythm is crucial because it regulates the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, influencing students’ alertness, mood, and cognitive function throughout the day. Aligning classroom lighting with students’ circadian rhythms can enhance their academic performance. Enlighted sensors support tunable whites, DALI drivers and 0-10V lighting fixture control techniques. During the winter months, lighting can be adjusted to mimic sunlight and make classrooms feel brighter, but not uncomfortable. In the summer, lighting can shift to allow for sunlight as the main source of illumination. 
4. Flexibility:  
   • Communication Flexibility: All Enlighted sensors support dual-channel communication, radio frequency and Bluetooth, ensuring wide compatibility. 
   • Installation Flexibility: Enlighted sensors seamlessly integrate into fixtures, offering lighting designers, architects, and specifiers a clean, elegant aesthetic and installation that happens in minutes, not hours. Enlighted wireless system also provide greater flexibility in terms of placement, control, and repositioning of devices such as switches and sensors without the constraints of wiring. 
   • Override Flexibility: Enlighted systems are compatible with a variety of room control switches, including Enlighted control switches, as well as battery-operated EnOcean and Illumra switches. Customize your setup with engraving, switch color, scene control, or dimming to suit your needs. 
   • Retrofit & New build Flexibility: Enlighted systems are wireless systems, making them ideal for K-12 retrofits and new builds. With fewer hardware changes required, the Enlighted system can be implemented easily.  
5. Scalability: Enlighted enables lighting designers to provide scalable solutions to their clients. Using a similar hardware layout, lighting designers can provide basic to advanced IoT lighting functionality to their clients through software upgrades. Moreover, the system can be scaled easily across areas, enabling lighting designers and K-12 management to plan for future upgrades by building on the existing infrastructure.