Hid Controller To Reduce Lighting Costs

By Author: solar hot water Peter
Total Articles: 139
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HID controllers reduce energy usage to lamps and are used in energy management. Correctly designed and implemented, HID lighting controllers can achieve, in some instances, average savings of 18% on lighting. HID controllers are designed to provide high voltage supply to lighting panels under certain conditions and to provide low voltage supply to lighting panels under other conditions.

Only the Volt Miser Lighting Controller has a patent on its power reduction design. This patent ensures that the lamps are warmed up for 15 minutes prior to performing voltage reduction. Over 300 of these systems have been in installed in the USA and Canada.
The HID Controller is available in the following sizes:
25kW, 50kW, 75 kW, 100 kW and 150kW
Voltages available: 347/600 120/208 277/480
These HID Controllers have been installed in hundreds of locations and some have been in operation for over 15 years.

There are other lighting controllers on the market but their design is complex and bulky. For example, Falk in U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,877 teaches a system wherein two switches are actuated substantially ...
... simultaneously in each half-cycle of the A.C. power input, once for power reduction for a time interval T1-T2 and once for harmonic distortion reduction for a time T3-T4 that encompasses each A.C. power zero-crossing time TX. Another system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,048 in the name of Troy wherein a plurality of slave units are provided, each slave unit comprising a switched capacitor and a slave relay. Although these systems may perform their intended purpose, they are complex and relatively expensive to manufacture.

In accordance with this invention, a simple, relatively compact, light weight, inexpensive control system is provided for controlling HID lamps and other loads, wherein bi-level switching for dimming is required. The system comprises: a first voltage source for providing a first voltage level; a second voltage source for providing a second voltage level; resistive means and first switching means in series and electrically coupled between the first voltage source and the output terminal for providing a suitable resistance for buffering a transition from the first voltage level to the second voltage level; a second switching means electrically between the first voltage and the output terminal; a third switching means electrically between the second voltage source and the output terminal; control means for controlling the three switches in a predetermined sequence to allow switching a voltage source from the first source to the second source through a buffered transition provided by the resistive means.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention a method for switching an output terminal from a first voltage level to a second level through a buffered transition is provided, comprising the steps of:

a) Providing a first voltage source for providing a first voltage level;

b) Providing a second voltage source for providing a second voltage level;

c) Electrically coupling the first voltage source to the output terminal to provide the first voltage level at the output terminal;

d) after a suitable duration for warming up a load, buffering a transition from the first voltage level to the second voltage level by switching resistive means into the circuit between the first voltage source and the output terminal, and allowing current to pass through the resistive means for a predetermined interval of time 5 while decoupling the first voltage source from being directly coupled to the output terminal; and, e) switching to electrically couple the second voltage source to the output terminal to provide the second voltage level at the output terminal.

This is a guest post by James Peter. He is a fairly well-known HID Controller and Lighting Controller.