Energy efficiency of lighting installations: Software application and experimental validation

The rational use of energy and energy-efficient environmental public street lighting is an important topic. In the design of new public lighting installations, national regulations containing energy-efficient guidelines are already used. Nevertheless, either in new installations or in reconstructions of existing lighting, designers do not generally consider all the available means to save energy. In installations of street lighting, energy consumption can be reduced by reducing the losses in the conductors, associated with the efficiency of the equipment, allowing better use of the available energy. The losses in the conductors must be analysed in conjunction with all the loads that contribute to the current in the sections of the installed street lighting. When opting for more efficient lamps and luminaires or lighting control systems, the current decreases in the sections covered with the most significant power loss due to proportionality with the square of the current. This decrease, often forgotten, is considered in this work in the investment analysis of efficiency and sustainable street lighting via simulation and experimental results. This analysis, combined with the features and operating parameters of the electrical installation, accounts for all the gains that can make a difference in the choice of efficient street lighting. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).