Low-Cost, High Efficiency Integration of Solid-State Lighting and Building Controls Using a Packet Energy Transfer (PET) Power Distribution System

Solid state lighting has not yet taken off in commercial buildings due to its high relative installed cost. On a normalized basis, solid state lighting replacement lamps are on the order of two times more expensive than equivalent compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and five times more expensive than an equivalent downlight fixture. An additional barrier relates to the performance and cost of the driver circuitry, which comprises 15-20% of the cost of a commercial lamp and operates at a nominal efficiency of 88%. A third opportunity to improve the value proposition of solid state lighting relates to integration of advanced building control technologies by taking advantage of the built-in intelligent electronics due to the driver circuit. The proposed project will demonstrate an approach to reduce solid state lighting installed costs by upwards of 20-30%, reduce power distribution and conversion losses by a factor of three, and seamlessly integrated advanced building controls. The proposed approach is to leverage an intrinsically safe method for distributing high voltage direct current (DC) power in buildings that is highly efficient and capable of embedding data signals directly onto the power distribution channel using a novel technology called Packet Energy Transfer (PET). PET enables direct DC power distribution to solid state lighting and other building DC loads (e.g., consumer electronics, servers and workstations), which eliminates small distributed DC power supplies that are inefficient and costly compared to centralized alternating current (AC)-to-DC power conversion. The PET approach also simplifies the complexity associated with interfacing dimming signals with AC-driven lights by embedding data signals directly onto the PET conductor. In Phase I, the company will demonstrate the functionality and performance of a 1kW PET distribution system that accepts power from a commercial DC power supply, sends packetized power over Cat 5 cable to a remotely located receiver, and powers and controls driverless solid state lights with & gt;91% (grid-to- LED) efficiency. If the project is carried over into Phase III and successfully commercialized for commercial building applications, the projected cost reductions and other benefits of PET have the potential to save building owners $1.4-2.3 billion per year and the Federal Government $304-$486 million per year in capital and operating costs, save 5.1-8.8 TWh per year of energy, and reduce carbon emissions by 2.6-4.4 million metric tons per year by 2025.